Neon

Neonlighting first emerged as a cutting-edge technology in the late nineteenthcentury, illuminating the night sky with bright, colorful commercial signage.Artists soon began to test its potential, and figures like Chryssa, BruceNauman, Dan Flavin, Mary Weatherford, and Glenn Ligon created iconic worksthat established neon as a legitimate artistic medium. As the earliest neonartworks approach one hundred years old, their conservation becomes ever moreimportant. Unfortunately, the practice of preserving light-based art isabsent from most conservation training programs. This publication fills thatgap, offering an invaluable resource for conservators, collectors,preparators, and anyone else with a professional involvement with, or just curiosityabout, neon artifacts.Ellen Moody and Taylor Healy,conservators working with light- and time-based art, have created acomprehensive manual to serve as a practical tool kit for the installation,preservation, and storage of neon art. They provide foundational knowledge onhistory, technology, terminology, and best practices, along with step-by-stepinstructions, real-world case studies, and templates for documentation andidentification. The online verion of the publication is enhanced withinformative, practical videos that give hands-on guidance on repairs andmaintenance. This is an indispensable compendium for anyone actively engagedwith or interested in the preservation of neon.The freeonline edition of this open-access publication is available atgetty.edu/publications/neon/ and includes zoomable illustrations, videos, anddownloadable appendices. Also available are free PDF and EPUB downloads ofthe book.