Laddie John Dill was born in Long Beach, California in 1943. He graduated at the Chouinard Art Institute in 1968 with a Bachelor of Fine Art. After graduation, Laddie John Dill worked closely with established artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenberg, Roy Lichtenstein and Jasper Johns.

LADDIE JOHN DILL AT THE MOMA

Laddie John Dill’s works are in the permanent collections of national and international institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Laddie John Dill had his first solo exhibition in New York in 1971. He was one of the first Los Angeles artists exhibiting „Light and Space“ in New York.

UNIQUE TECHNOLOGY

Since the 1970s, Dill began using materials such as cement, glass, sand, and metal to create light and wall sculptures. Referring to his choice of materials, Dill explains, „I was influenced by Robert Rauschenberg, Keith Sonnier, or Robert Irwin, who presented „Light and Space“ without a canvas.“ Today, when Dill uses a canvas, he paints with pigments extracted from cement and natural oxides.

ART THAT GLOWS

Ken Johnson, well-known as a New York Times art critic and writer, explains, „In the late 1960s, Laddie John Dill began creating electric light works from custom blown glass tubes in a lush palette of jewel-bright colors. Some are made up of many short pieces, some of longer pieces and fewer colors. They glow beautifully like strings of illuminated glass beads. Dill called these works „light sentences“ and compared the color segments with words grouped into phrases and sentences. This indicates that light itself might be a transcendent language. But the effect of these works in concert is less verbal and more like visual music.“

CALIFORNIA ABSTRACT

In 2019 – 2020, the Museum Art & Cars in Singen showed numerous aluminum works by the artist titled „California Abstract“, as well as two spectacular light sculptures based on his works shown at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.