Rudi Stern, 69; Artist Was Known for His Work With Neon

Rudi Stern, 69, a multimedia artist who used light and neon to create psychedelic shows for Timothy Leary and vibrant environments for the legendary New York disco Studio 54, died Tuesday in Cadiz, Spain, of complications from lung cancer, the New York Times reported.

Born Rudolph George Stern in New Haven, Conn., he earned a bachelor’s degree in studio arts from Bard College in New York and a master’s degree from the University of Iowa. Trained as a painter, he studied with noted artists Hans Hoffman and Oskar Kokoschka.

He settled in New York City in the 1960s and began a collaboration with artist Jackie Cassen. Together they designed kinetic installations including “psychedelic celebrations” for Leary, the exponent of LSD.

According to the New York Times, Stern and Cassen helped resuscitate the lost art of neon imagery in the early 1970s when they founded the Let There Be Neon gallery in Manhattan.

Over the years, Stern created neon signs for the Broadway show “Kiss of the Spider Woman” and work for shows by several performance and musical artists, including Laurie Anderson.