Untitled

Description

Oskar Fischinger
United States, 1900–1967
Untitled
1948
Oil on panel
Gift of the Estate of Maxine W. Kunstadter in memory of Sigmund Kunstadter, Class of 1922, 1983/1.419
Born in Germany, Fischinger was trained in music, architecture, and engineering before eventually embarking on a career in experimental film. In the 1920s and 30s he produced his own animated, abstract films while also working with Fritz Lang in Berlin, producing special effects. He fled Germany in 1936 to escape Nazi persecution and signed a contract with Paramount Studios in Hollywood. He eventually moved on to Disney, where he spent a year working on Fantasia. His move to America coincided with an increased focus on his painting. Resolutely abstract, his work falls into two categories, either organic with swirling forms or, as here, geometric with angular forms. In film and painting alike, Fischinger was keenly interested in translating sound and music into visual form, and his overlapping and intersecting abstract forms were intended to suggest harmonic relationships.
(6/28/10)