Fischinger installation at the Whitney

http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/OskarFischinger

Oskar Fischinger (1900–1967), Raumlichtkunst, 1926/2012. Three screen projection: three 35mm films transferred to high-definition video, black-and-white and color, sound; 10 minutes, looped...

In 1926, abstract filmmaker Oskar Fischinger (1900-1967) began performing multiple projector cinema shows in Germany with five 35mm film projectors, color filters and slides. Fischinger wrote of his concept of Raumlichtmusik (space-light-music), believing all the arts would merge in this new art. The critics called his performances "Raumlichtkunst" and praised Fischinger's  “original art vision which can only be expressed through film.” These shows represent some of the earliest attempts at cinematic immersive environments, and are a precursor to expanded cinema and 1960's light shows.

Oskar's early abstract experiments push aside narrative and reduce cinema to pure plane, scale, motion and color. Because of his highly accessible later work, especially from Radio Dynamics onward, and because of the musical dimension, he is generally regarded as a colorist/lyrical film-maker. But the early experiments including Raumlichtkunst are much more formalist and invested in the specificity of the medium.  They are closer to Malevich, the suprematists and the futurists in intent - all in search of the absolute in painting and in cinema. Long before he became an American, Fischinger was part of the international avant-garde of modernism's most radical phase.


Working with Fischinger's original 1920s nitrate film, this show has restored the 35mm film via traditional photochemical processes, transferred to HD, digitally restored the color, and mounted this 3 screen recreation of his c. 1926 - 27 performances.

Go to this. and think about ME. 


bye.