Rockne Krebs American, 1938-2011

 

Kreb's also worked in a variety of media, including neon (in installations on large bridges in Miami, Florida, and Shreveport, Louisiana), sunlight, and camera obscura. The artist also created a number of sculptures that combined prisms. His initial approach to sculpture was to eliminate its materiality, and a number of his early 1960's works were geometric forms in clear Plexiglas. Laser light was his next step in creating sculptural works that had no solid form. His ground-breaking works in this medium led to his inclusion in the famous Art and Technology project and subsequent exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

 

In 1974 he was the first artist to create a work with digital memory that could project words or moving images in laser light. His interest in technology and science led to a lifelong friendship with Philip M. Smith, Science Advisor to President Carter and, later, Director of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

Rockne Krebs (1938-2011) was born in Kansas City, MO, and came to Washington, DC, in 1964. His work is represented in the collections of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, The Brooklyn Museum, the High Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Phillips Collection, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, among many other public and private art collections.