Light sculpture

Dan Flavin" Quietly, to the memory of Mia Visser, 1977

File:OlafurEliasson TheWeatherProject.jpg

Olafur Eliasson's "The Weather Project", 2003. The room's ceiling is a mirror; what appears to be a sphere is a reflected semicircle.

Light sculpture is an intermedia and time-based art form in which sculpture or any kind of art object produces light, or the reverse (in the sense that light is manipulated in such a way as to create a sculptural as opposed to temporal form or mass). Most often light sculpture artists were primarily either visual artists or composers, not having started out directly making light sculpture. László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946), a member of the Bauhaus, and influenced by constructivism is regarded as one of the fathers of Light art. Light and moving sculpture are the components of his Light-Space Modulator (1922–30), One of the first light art pieces which also combines kinetic art.

Light sculpture is sometimes site-specific.

Artists

Artists include:

• Dan Flavin who first conceived of using electric light as an art form in 1961,
• Olafur Eliasson - Internationally active artist responsible for several large light art installations.
• James Turrell
• Ellis D Fogg
• Bruce Nauman
• Keith Sonnier
• Chryssa
• Frank Malina
• Bill Parker
• Waltraut Cooper
• Tim White-Sobieski
• Ron Cooper
• Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
• Annet van Egmond

The site of the first factory of the Philips corporation, in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is now a museum devoted to light sculpture.

See also

• Light art
• LED Art
• Lumino kinetic art

Notes and references

• Light Verse (short story), Isaac Asimov, September-October 1973

Further reading

• Jansen, J. (1991), 'Het Electrisch': van lamplicht tot lichtsculptuur, Museum het Princessehof, ISBN 9789071588105.
• Tahara, Keiichi (2001), Light, Sculpture, Photography, Editions Assouline, ISBN 9782843232626.