Oskar Fischinger

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Oskar Wilhelm Fischinger (22 June 1900 – 31 January

1967) was a German-American abstract animator, Oskar Fischinger
filmmaker, and painter, notable for creating abstract musical Born Oskar Wilhelm Fischinger
animation many decades before the appearance of computer 22 June 1900
graphics and music videos. He created special effects for Gelnhausen, German Empire
Fritz Lang's 1929 Woman in the Moon, one of the first sci-fi
rocket movies. He made over 50 short films, and painted Died 31 January 1967 (aged 66)
around 800 canvases, many of which are in museums, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
galleries and collections worldwide. Among his film works Occupation Abstract animator, filmmaker,
is Motion Painting No. 1 (1947), which is now listed on the painter
National Film Registry of the U.S. Library of Congress.
Years active 1920–1947
Notable work Motion Painting No. 1
Contents Spouse(s) Elfriede Fischinger (1932–1967; his
death)
1 Biography Children 5
1.1 Early career
1.2 Berlin
1.3 Hollywood
2 Lumigraph
3 Films
4 Archive
5 Tribute
6 See also
7 References
8 Sources
9 Further reading
10 External links

Biography
Fischinger apprenticed at an organ-building firm after he finished school until the owners were drafted into
World War I. The next year he worked as a draftsman in an architect's office, until he too was called to duty.
However, since he was too "unhealthy", he was rejected from combat duty. After the war, the Fischinger family
moved west to Frankfurt. There Fischinger attended a trade school and worked as an apprentice, eventually
obtaining an Engineer's Diploma.

Early career

In Frankfurt, Fischinger met the theatre critic Bernhard Diebold, who in 1921 introduced Fischinger to the
work and personage of Walter Ruttmann, a pioneer in abstract film. Inspired by Ruttmann's work, Fischinger
began experimenting with colored liquids and three-dimensional modelling materials such as wax and clay. He
invented a "Wax Slicing Machine", which synchronized a vertical slicer with a movie camera's shutter, enabling
the efficient imaging of progressive cross-sections through a length of molded wax and clay. Fischinger wrote
to Ruttmann about his machine, who expressed interest. Moving to Munich, Fischinger licensed the wax slicing
machine to Ruttmann, who used it to make some backgrounds for Lotte Reiniger's Prince Achmed film. During
this time Fischinger shot many abstract tests of his own using the machine. Some of these are distributed today
under the assigned title Wax Experiments.
In 1924, Fischinger was hired by American entrepreneur Louis Seel to produce satirical cartoons that tended
toward mature audiences. He also made abstract films and tests of his own, trying new and different techniques,
including the use of multiple projectors. "In 1926 and 1927, Fischinger performed his own multiple projector
film shows with various musical accompaniments. These shows were titled Fieber (Fever), Vakuum, Macht
(Power) and later, R-1 ein Formspiel".[1] In 2012, a multiple screen event, "Raumlichtkunst," from the series
first performed in Germany in 1926, was reconstructed by the Center for Visual Music[2] and exhibited at the
Whitney Museum[3] and Tate Modern, London.

Facing financial difficulties, Fischinger borrowed from his family, and then his landlady. Finally, in an effort to
escape bill collectors, Fischinger decided to surreptitiously depart Munich for Berlin in June 1927. Taking only
his essential equipment, he walked 350 miles through the countryside, shooting single frames that were
released many decades later as the film Walking from Munich to Berlin.

Berlin

Arriving in Berlin, Fischinger borrowed some money from a relative and set up a studio on Friedrichstraße. He
soon was doing the special effects for various films. His own proposals for cartoons were not accepted by
producers or distributors, however.[4] In 1928, he was hired to work on space epic Woman in the Moon
(German: Frau im Mond), directed by Fritz Lang, which provided him a steady salary for a time. On his own
time, he experimented with charcoal-on-paper animation. He produced a series of abstract Studies that were
synchronized to popular and classical music. A few of the early Studies were synchronized to new record
releases by Electrola, and screened at first-run theatres with a tail credit advertising the record, thus making
them, in a sense, the very first music videos.

The Studies — Numbers 1 through 12 — were well received at art theatres and many were distributed to first-
run theatres throughout Europe. Some of the Studies were distributed to theatres in Japan and the US. His
Studie Nr. 5 screened at the 1931 "Congress for Colour-Music Research" to critical acclaim. In 1931, Universal
Pictures purchased distribution rights to Studie Nr. 5 for the American public, and Studie Nr. 7 screened as a
short with a popular movie in Berlin, and many other cities worldwide. The special effects Fischinger did for
other movies led to his being called "the Wizard of Friedrichstraße". In 1932, Fischinger married Elfriede
Fischinger, a first cousin from his hometown of Gelnhausen.

As the Nazis consolidated power after 1933, the abstract film and art communities and distribution possibilities
quickly disappeared as the Nazis instituted their policies against what they termed "degenerate art". His brother
Hans Fischinger showed his absolute film "Tanz der Farben" (i.e. The Dance of Colors) in Hamburg in 1939.
Oskar Fischinger continued to make films, and also found work producing commercials and advertisements,
among them Muratti Greift Ein (translated as Muratti Gets in the Act, or Muratti Marches On) (1934), for a
cigarette company, and Kreise (Circles) (1933-34), for an advert agency. The color Muratti commercial with its
stop-motion dancing cigarettes screened all over Europe. Though Fischinger at times ran afoul of the Nazi
authorities, he managed to complete his abstract work Komposition in Blau in 1935. It was well-received
critically, and contrary to popular myth, was legally registered.[5] An agent from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
screened a print of Komposition in Blau and Muratti in a small art theatre in Hollywood, and Ernst Lubitsch
was impressed by the films and the audience's enthusiastic response to the shorts. An agent from Paramount
Pictures telephoned Fischinger, asking if he was willing to work in the United States, and Fischinger promptly
agreed.

Hollywood

Upon arriving in Hollywood in February 1936, Fischinger was given an office at Paramount, German-speaking
secretaries, an English tutor, and a weekly salary of $250. He and Elfriede socialized with the émigré
community, but felt out of place among the elites. As he waited for his assignment to begin, Fischinger
sketched and painted.[6] He prepared a film which was originally named Radio Dynamics, tightly synchronized
to Ralph Rainger's tune "Radio Dynamics". This short film was planned for inclusion in the feature film The
Big Broadcast of 1937 (1936). However, Paramount only planned to release in black-and-white film, which was
not communicated to Fischinger when he began his work. Paramount would not allow even a test in color of
Fischinger's film. Fischinger requested to be let out of his contract and left Paramount. Several years later, with
the help of Hilla von Rebay and a grant from the Museum of Non-Objective Painting (later The Guggenheim),
he was able to buy the film back from Paramount. Fischinger then redid and re-painted the cels and made a
color version to his satisfaction which he then called Allegretto. This became one of the most-screened and
successful films of visual music's history, and one of Fischinger's most popular films.

Most of Fischinger's filmmaking attempts in America suffered difficulties. He composed An Optical Poem
(1937) to Franz Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody for MGM, but received no profits due to studio
bookkeeping systems. He designed the J. S. Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor sequence for Walt Disney's
Fantasia (1940), but quit without credit because Disney altered his designs to be more representational.
According to William Moritz, Fischinger contributed to the effects animation of the Blue Fairy's wand in
Pinocchio (1940).[7] In the 1950s, Fischinger created several animated TV advertisements, including one for
Muntz TV.

The Museum of Non-Objective Painting commissioned him to synchronize a film with a march by John Philip
Sousa in order to demonstrate loyalty to America, and then insisted that he make a film to Bach's Brandenburg
Concerto No. 3, even though he wanted to make a film without sound in order to affirm the integrity of his non-
objective imagery. Secretly, Fischinger composed the silent movie Radio Dynamics (1942).

Frustrated in his filmmaking, Fischinger turned increasingly to oil painting as a creative outlet. Although the
Guggenheim Foundation specifically requested a cel animation film, Fischinger made his Bach film Motion
Painting No. 1 (1947) as a documentation of the act of painting, taking a single frame each time he made a
brush stroke—and the multi-layered style merely parallels the structure of the Bach music without any tight
synchronization. Although he never again received funding for any of his personal films (only some
commercial work), the Motion Painting No. 1 won the Grand Prix at the Brussels International Experimental
Film Competition in 1949. Three of Fischinger's films also made the 1984 Olympiad of Animation's list of the
world's greatest films.

Fischinger died in Los Angeles in 1967. A great deal of inaccurate information continues to be published about
Fischinger, largely taken from decades-old sources, often repeated online.

Lumigraph
In the late 1940s Fischinger invented the Lumigraph (patented in 1955) which some have mistakenly called a
type of color organ. Like other inventors of color organs, Fischinger hoped to make the Lumigraph a
commercial product, widely available for anyone, but this did not happen. The instrument produced imagery by
pressing against a rubberized screen so it could protrude into a narrow beam of colored light. As a visual
instrument, the size of its screen was limited by the reach of the performer. Two people were required to
operate the Lumigraph: one to manipulate the screen to create imagery, and a second to change the colors of the
lights on cue.

The device itself was silent, but was performed accompanying various music. Fischinger gave several
performances in Los Angeles and one in San Francisco in the early 1950s, performing various classical and
popular music pieces, and many were impressed by the machine's spectacular images. In 1964 the Lumigraph
was used in the science fiction film The Time Travelers, in which it became a 'lumichord', although this was not
Fischinger's intent, but the decision of the film's producers. Fischinger's son Conrad even built two more
machines in different sizes. After his death, his widow Elfriede and daughter Barbara gave performances with
the Lumigraph, along with William Moritz, in Europe and the US.

Today one of the instruments is in the collection of the Deutsches Filmmuseum in Frankfurt, and the other two
are in California. In February 2007 Barbara Fischinger performed on the original Lumigraph in Frankfurt, and
in 2012 in Amsterdam. Film and video documentation of Elfriede's Lumigraph performances are at the Center
for Visual Music in Los Angeles, as well as documentation of Barbara's 2012 rehearsal, showing how the
Lumigraph is operated.
Films
Wachs Experimente (1921-26) Study Nr. 10 and 11 (1932)
Stäbe (1923-27) Study Nr. 12 (1932)
Spiralen (1925) Study Nr. 13-fragment (1933-34)
Raumlichtkunst project (c. 1926) Kreise (Alle kreise erfasst Tolirag) (1933-34)
München-Berlin Wanderung (1927) Muratti greift ein (1934)
Seelische Konstruktionen (1927) Komposition in Blau (1935)
Study Nr. 1 (1929) Muratti Privat (1935)
Study Nr. 2 (1929) Allegretto (1936-1943), two versions
Study Nr. 3 (1930) An Optical Poem (1937)
Study Nr. 4 (1930) Organic Fragment (1941)
Study Nr. 5 (1930) An American March (1941)
Study Nr. 6 (1930) Radio Dynamics (1942)
Study Nr. 7 (1930-31) Motion Painting No. 1 (1947)
Study Nr. 8 (1931) Muntz TV and Oklahoma Gas Commercials (c.
Study Nr. 9 (1931) 1952)
Ornament Sound experiments (c. 1932)
Study Nr. 10 and 11 (1932)
Archive
Fischinger's papers, films, photographs, and many animation drawings are in the collection of Center for Visual
Music (CVM), Los Angeles, which owns and manages the films. They maintain a vimeo channel with excerpts
and VOD films, and are releasing the second DVD compilation of his works in late 2017. CVM also has the
papers of Elfriede Fischinger and Fischinger's biographer Dr. William Moritz. CVM has preserved many of
Fischinger's films including Spirals, Wax Experiments, early tests and experiments, Squares, Study no. 5, Study
no. 7, Allegretto, Radio Dynamics and others, and also reconstructed his 1926 Raumlichtkunst project which
has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum, NY; Tate Modern, London and other museums worldwide. The
Fischinger Trust in California administers Fischinger's paintings, and their official art dealer representing the
painting estate is Peyton-Wright Gallery, Santa Fe.

Tribute
On June 30, 2017, Google commemorates Oskar Fishchinger on his 117th birthday with an interactive
fullscreen Doodle for users to create their own musical songs by tapping on the screen.[8]

See also
Clavier à lumières
Len Lye
List of German painters
Music visualization
Visual music

References
1. Keefer, Cindy (2005). "Space Light Art - Early Abstract Cinema and Multimedia, 1900-1959" (http://www.centerforvisu
almusic.org/CKSLAexc.htm). White Noise. Melbourne: Australian Centre for the Moving Image.
2. "Raumlichtkunst" (http://www.centerforvisualmusic.org/Raumlichtkunst.html). Center for Visual Music. Retrieved
16 January 2013.
3. "Oskar Fischinger: Space Light Art—A Film Environment - Whitney Museum of American Art" (http://whitney.org/Ex
hibitions/OskarFischinger/). whitney.org.
4. Moritz. (2004). p.22.
5. Moritz. (2004). p.207
 6. Moritz. (2004). p.67.
7. Moritz, William (1977). "Fischinger at Disney - or Oskar in the Mousetrap."(http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/s
plog/?p=2409). Millimeter Magazine: 25–28, 65–67. Retrieved June 22, 2017 – via www.michaelspornanimation.com.
8. "Oskar Fischinger’s 117th Birthday" (https://www.google.com/doodles/oskar-fischingers-117th-birthdaye). Google
Doodle. Retrieved 1 July 2017.

Sources
Keefer, Cindy; Guldemond, Jaap, eds. (2013). Oskar Fischinger (1900-1967): Experiments in Cinematic
Abstraction. EYE Film Museum and Center for Visual Music. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-
0500970515.
Moritz, William (2004). Optical Poetry: The Life and Work of Oskar Fischinger. Bloomington: IN:
Indiana university press. ISBN 978-0253216410.

Further reading
Moritz, William (1976). "The Importance of Being Fischinger". Ottawa International Animated Film
Festival (program).
"Oskar Fischinger". Biography. Fischinger Research collection. Center for Visual Music.
Keefer, Cindy (2009). Raumlichtmusik - Early 20th Century Abstract Cinema Immersive Environments
(pdf) . Leonardo Electronic Almanac.
Klein, Adrian Bernard (1937). Coloured Light An Art Medium (3rd ed.). London: The Technical Press.
ASIN B000857J6K. "General theoretical text, not specifically related to Fischinger"
Rimington, Alexander Wallace (1912). Colour-Music The Art Of Mobile Colour. Internet Archive.
London: Hutchinson. ASIN B00085V3IU. "General theoretical text, not specifically related to
Fischinger"

External links
Official website
Center for Visual Music (CVM) Archive which manages the films and papers.
[ http://www.centerforvisualmusic.org/Fischinger Fischinger Research site }
"Raumlichtkunst 1926/2012" [Space Light Art] (Three screen reconstruction) . Exhibitions.

Fischinger films online from CVM (excerpts and VOD full films)
"Raumlichtkunst 1926/2012" [Space Light Art] (Three screen reconstruction) . Whitney Museum. Oct 26,
2016.
Oskar Fischinger on Internet Movie Database contains much errata
Reichmann, Hans-Peter. Sammlung Oskar Fischinger [Oskar Fischinger Collection]. Frankfurt am Main:
Deutsches Filminstitut. (in German)
Petzke, Ingo (2012). "Oskar Fischinger - Life and Work". Academia.edu. 1821277.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oskar_Fischinger&oldid=788398650"

Categories: 1900 births 1967 deaths 20th-century German painters German male painters
American experimental filmmakers Abstract animation German emigrants to the United States
German experimental filmmakers German-language film directors People from Gelnhausen
People from Hesse-Nassau Visual music artists Emigrants from Nazi Germany

This page was last edited on 1 July 2017, at 05:04.

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