Rudolph George Stern (November 30, 1936 – August 15, 2006) was an American multimedia artist most widely known for his work in neon. In his later years, he concentrated on making documentary films.

Biography

Stern was born in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 ...

. He graduated from

Bard College Bard College is a private liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic District—a National Historic Landmark. Founded in 18 ...

in 1958 with a bachelor's degree in studio arts and from

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 coll ...

in 1960 with a master's degree. He also studied painting with

Oskar Kokoschka Oskar Kokoschka (1 March 1886 – 22 February 1980) was an Austrian artist, poet, playwright, and teacher best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes, as well as his theories on vision that influenced the Viennese Exp ...

and

Hans Hofmann Hans Hofmann (March 21, 1880 – February 17, 1966) was a German-born American painter, renowned as both an artist and teacher. His career spanned two generations and two continents, and is considered to have both preceded and influenced Abstrac ...

. In the mid-1960s he moved to New York City, where he met the poet and artist Jackie Cassen. They collaborated on multimedia installations of kinetic art, including the "Psychedelic Celebration Number One" for

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...

advocate

Timothy Leary Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from bold oracle to publicity hound. He was "a her ...

, and installations at the

Electric Circus ''Electric Circus '' (also known as ''EC'') was a Canadian live dance music television program that aired on MuchMusic and Citytv from September 16, 1988 to December 12, 2003. The name originated from a nightclub that once existed at Citytv's fir ...

nightclub. With video artist and documentarian John Reilly, Stern founded Global Village Video in 1969. In 1972, he founded Let There Be Neon, a studio and gallery in New York. He designed and produced neon pieces for the Broadway show, '' Kiss of the Spider Woman'', and other art and music performances, as well as commercial signs. Together with Katharine Kean, he directed the 1992 documentary ''Haití: Killing the Dream'', starring

Jean-Bertrand Aristide Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 15 July 1953) is a Haitian former Salesian priest and politician who became Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince ...

. Between 1999 and 2001, his multimedia installation "Theater of Light" was shown at multiple locations in New York and New Jersey. The installation involved several screens, more than 30 projectors and "surrounded audience members with densely layered, constantly changing images, intricately choreographed to music." Stern died in 2006 at his home in Cadiz, Spain, from complications of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...

. He was married twice, to Moira North and then to Raffaella Trivi. He had two daughters: Stella (with Trivi) and Lumiere (by an earlier relationship).

Publications

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References

External links

Let There Be Neon

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stern, Rudi 1936 births 2006 deaths American artists Neon artists Artists from Connecticut

Biography

Publications

See also

References

External links