Public Art
Rockne Krebs: Born in 1938 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Rockne Krebs was, by the 1970s, a major pioneer in public artworks.
Krebs was one of the first artists to experiment with lasers and other light forms in his works, the first to create three-dimensional installations with light, and the first to deploy lasers in large-scale public works. For The Source (1980), he directed parallel beams of argon and krypton lasers from the Lincoln Memorial across the Mall in Washington, D.C. One beam floated above the White House, another went towards the Capitol.
Public Art Review, Spring/Summer 2012, Issue 46, In Memory: Rockne Krebs
The Miami Line photographed by Rockne Krebs in 1984. Upon completion in 1987 it was a one-quarter mile long neon sculpture on both sides of the bridge over the Miami River in downtown Miami, Florida.
“But we are all artists, some can run faster than others.” Rockne Krebs, 1999, artist writings
The White Tornado, 1979
The White Tornado / White Light / White Heat / White Lightning
A public art sculpture created for the atrium of The Frank Carlson Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Topeka, Kansas. Commissioned by the U.S. General Services Administration Art-in-Architecture Program.
An environmental sculpture 60 feet high with a tornado-like element on which white neon lightning bolts are placed to form a five-pointed star when viewed from below - sunlight, prisms, white neon, white painted aluminum, mirrors, and scrim fabric.
Restoration of The White Tornado was completed by McKay Lodge Laboratory Fine Art Conservation in 2017. For more from McKay Lodge on The White Tornado “Sculpture Conservation, Light Sculpture: Rockne Krebs, creator of The White Tornado, is one of the pioneers of electronic and technology-based artworks or sculptures, has created some of the largest public art installations in the world. Krebs was widely recognized for his monumental sculpture installations with laser light – a new technology when he began to explore its potential for art in the 1960’s.
Krebs also worked in a wide variety of media including: neon, glass, lasers and is credited as being the first artist to use digital memory. The GSA Art in Architecture Fine Arts Program tasked McKay Lodge Art Conservation Laboratory to treat Krebs’ sculpture The White Tornado. Located in The Frank Carlson Federal Building in Topeka, Kansas, this sculpture was installed in 1979....”
Two art installations were created utilizing the advanced laser technology available at their respective times. "Canis Major" was initially conceived with the relatively novel lasers that emerged in the early 1970s, while "Good Luck World," created in 1996, employed an innovative computer animation program specifically designed for laser projections.
Canis Major and Good Luck World, 1996, CNN Center, Atlanta, GA, in celebration of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Krebs recreated his 1973-1976 laser sculpture, Canis Major, in what was originally (newly constructed) the Omni International Complex (now the CNN Center and Omni Atlanta Hotel at Centennial Park) and created Good Luck World for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Good Luck World, a computer animated laser projection on the CNN Center atrium ceiling was 100’ x 150’.
“…the drawings are (other than the beautiful slides he takes) often the only documents that exist of his completed work.” Jay Belloli, 1983
"Miami’s Art in Public Places program began nearly 40 years ago. Today, there are more than 700 installations out there in our midst—and counting. The hammered glass mural tapestries of the Bacardi Building on Biscayne Boulevard, the brilliant red horse and sunny yellow giraffe metal sculptures in Bayside Park in the Grove, Rockne Krebs’ iconic The Miami Line, a multicolored light installation that stretches 1,540 feet across the Metrorail bridge over the Miami River and lets you know, lest you forget, that you are in The Magic City. Krebs’ originally put down 300 feet of lighting when he finished it in 1984, but since then, it has been extended exponentially—as has the Miami-Dade Art in Public Places program that brings the city such aesthetic inspiration." Editors, Aventura Magazine, December 2011/January 2012, For all the World to See.
I remember running into Rockne in Miami in 1983. He was working on his paper airplane piece for the Miami Airport International Terminal and Christo was busy surrounding the islands. This early confluence of artists and inspired installations all but predicted Miami to be the art center that it has become. I was working on the Christo project and keeping a journal for an article that I would write for the Washington Post Style section. It gave me great pleasure to mention that Washington artist Rockne Krebs was in Miami working on a project that would in fact be permanent. William Dunlap, May 14, 2013
The Crew of The Transparent Airplane in Miami Beach, 1983.
Big Al aka Alan Wald, The Rock aka Rockne Krebs and El Sid aka Sid Smith
The Transparent Paper Airplanes were constantly changing, almost seemingly in motion depending on the time of day, the weather, the indoor and outdoor lighting, and where the viewer was standing. The sculpture installation had a dynamic quality, the still photographs shown together give a sense of the ever-changing experience.
Transparent Paper Airplanes, 1983 / Part I
“To make them 8 feet long and out of transparent material resembles a Wonder Woman idea in some ways…” Rockne Krebs, 1983 (Miami TV news interview)
Transparent Paper Airplanes, 1983 / Part II
Miami International Airport, Miami, FL. Commissioned by Miami-Dade County Art in Public Places.