Neon art is ‘trendy’ again and shining bright at Glendale’s MONA
The lights are always off in the Museum of Neon Art. The collection of historic neon signage and contemporary neon art is more than enough to illuminate the room in a warm, colorful glow.
“I’ve heard people say ‘It’s alive!’ and it really has a quality of being alive and a part of nature, as opposed to something man-made,” says Kim Koga, executive director of MONA since 1999.
Inside the electrified glass tubes of the neon, each of the gases takes on a distinct color and characteristic. The signs also hum with electric life, as the gases react within, which can only be experienced up close. “You don’t see that driving by,” she says.
The museum’s move to Glendale last November has marked a new era for an entity once famously located on the bohemian edges of downtown Los Angeles. It went dark in 2011 and reopened in a new city in time for what Koga sees as another wave of popular neon fascination.
“Neon is trendy again,” says Koga, who first exhibited as an artist at MONA in 1990. “We kind of saw it coming, but by the time we reopened it was happening. The timing couldn’t have been better.”
“It definitely goes through cycles,” Koga adds. “I think the biggest trend was the ‘80s for neon. It was a time when Melrose was happening and there was a lot new neon signs being created there. That triggered a second comeback. The industry introduced some new colors.”
Neon signs used as decoration or advertising for various businesses dates back to early in the last century, and became a common site on movie palace marquees, saloons, repair shops and to a massive scale on the Las Vegas Strip. The signs were created within long glass tubes bent into letters and shapes and illuminated by gases of various colors.
Along the way, great luminous pieces of culture were created, and could be found anywhere. In MONA’s collection is the original hat-shaped sign for the Brown Derby restaurant at Hollywood and Vine that dates back to the early ‘30s. There’s also the grinning faces of Manny, Moe and Jack on a ‘70s-era Pep Boys neon sign, and the old Zinke’s Shoe Repairs sign from Glendale, an animated sign depicting a hammer gently tapping a heel.
Neon was always international, but was embraced with a special fondness in the U.S. “It really is Americana and it’s all over the place,” says Koga. “It’s not even urban. It’s rural also. You find some fantastic signs out on the open highway.”
The museum recently took possession of an old art deco piece that dated back to the ‘40s, a one-of-a-kind sign reading “Asthma Vapineze.” The sign was an advertisement for an asthma treatment, and it rested on the roof of a West Hollywood home until last year. “A very unusual eclectic sign, which we love,” says Koga.
Like many pieces in its collection, the old neon piece has been exposed to elements for decades. “To think it was out there wherever it was in the environment and never got broken is amazing,” she says. “It always blows my mind when we get a donation like that.”
The ongoing mission of MONA is not only to collect and display the neon in their collection, but to promote the preservation of neon as it continues to exist. For that reason, its long-running Neon Cruise series takes viewers on a local bus tour of famous and lesser-known pieces of neon signage across Los Angeles and adjacent towns.
“Our definition of preservation is to leave it on the building,” says Koga. “A lot of signs are lost because they are too large to own. Ideally, leave it there. We don’t see a sign that is perfectly happy where it is and try to buy it from the owner. We are more like a last-chance repository. We can’t save everything either.”
The next neon cruise is June 16. “It’s a real great form of outreach and educating the public in a fun way about the neon in their own backyard in L.A. — and there’s a lot of it.”
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What: Museum of Neon Art
Where: 216 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale
Tickets: General admission $10; students and seniors $8; Glendale residents $5.
More info: (818) 696-2149, www.new-neonmona.org.
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Steve Appleford, steve.appleford@latimes.com
Twitter: @SteveAppleford
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