
The height of new media advertising, a city’s new cocktail bar was most stylishly announced with a neon martini glass, and a state-of-the-art theatre of course had to come with a neon marquee. As the material became cheaper and readily available, cities became overrun with the signage, transforming cityscapes in just a matter of a few years.
In the 1930s and ‘40s nothing said glamour like a neon sign. The height of new media advertising, a city’s new cocktail bar was most stylishly announced with a neon martini glass, and a state-of-the-art theatre of course had to come with a neon marquee. As the material became cheaper and readily available, cities became overrun with the signage, transforming cityscapes in just a matter of a few years.
Gauche and ubiquitous, the medium became a fascinating subject for pop artists. Grand pop art maestro Andy Warhol called neon one of “the great modern things” and French artist Martial Raysse became one of the first to work with neon in a strictly artistic sense. His works, blending pop art portraiture with neon accents, helped move neon into the cultural conversation, further blurring the divide between the new consumerism and artistic merit.



