The Fischinger Trust and Archive

Oskar Fischinger, 1900-1967

Long Beach California, USA
Tel/fax 562-496-1449
Contact: Fischinger Archive

This is the official website, and a clearinghouse for information
on Oskar Fischinger's films, paintings and other work.

This site also contains Biographies, Filmography, Bibliography, Articles, Links and Research Resources

The first DVD in a series, Oskar Fischinger: Ten Films. 2006 release.

Order through Center for Visual Music

If you are ordering for a school, university, library or institution please use the Institutional Order Form. Please note, this DVD may not be used for public performances.

"If you love animation, or modern art, or computer graphics, consider it a must" - Leonard Maltin

Contains ten of Fischinger's classic Visual Music films - Allegretto, Motion Painting No. 1, Radio Dynamics, Spiritual Constructions, Study nr. 6, Study nr. 7, Kreise, Spirals, Wax Experiments, Walking from Munich to Berlin, plus many Special Features: home movies from Fischinger's Berlin Studio c. 1931, never-released early animation tests and fragments, a selection of paintings by Fischinger, a selection of biographical photos, film notes by Fischinger and others, and a biography. Produced by Center for Visual Music in association with Fischinger Archive and Jack Rutberg Fine Arts.

In the US, the DVD can be purchased at CVM's downtown LA offices, and at selected shops including National Gallery of Art bookshop (Washington DC), PS1 bookshop (NY) and other museum bookshops.

In Germany, through absolut MEDIEN online, Walter Koenig Booksellers Cologne, or at the Deutsches Filmmuseum (Frankfurt) bookshop. Also available in London (BFI Southbank Filmstore), Paris (HEEZA and Chalet Films), Amsterdam (Nederlands Filmmuseum), Austria (polyfilm, online).

If you are interested in contributing financially to the preservation of Oskar Fischinger's films for the next DVD edition, please Contact us

Films: Access and Distribution

Rentals, 16mm:
US: Canyon Cinema, San Francisco - films@canyoncinema.com, phone/fax: 415-626-2255
and The Museum of Modern Art, New York (Circulating Film Library)
Europe: Light Cone, Paris - lightcone@lightcone.org, 01 46 59 01 53
Germany: Deutsches Filmmuseum, Frankfurt - filmarchiv@deutsches-filmmuseum.de

A Retrospective Tribute of Oskar's films: Oskar Fischinger: Optical Poetry, featuring 35mm restored prints of Allegretto, Radio Dynamics, Kreise, Motion Painting No. 1, Study nr. 7, American March, and other films is available for rental to venues capable of archival projection standards. Please contact us at least 45 days in advance of playdate. Contact Fischinger Archive or CVM .

Radio Dynamics by Oskar Fischinger screens at "Visual Music" at MOCA Los Angeles, 2005

Contact us for other Rentals, Licensing, Special Permissions and Print Sales. Museum exhibition requests from digital masters may be considered only under very specific appropriate conditions, though we encourage showing the films on film. Contact us with full details of your request. We do not grant public performance rights or screening permission from the "Ten Films" DVD. For individual screening programs, the work should be screened on film. Certain films may be licensed for digital exhibition under very specific conditions. Please provide complete details of your exhibition including description of the museum/gallery space planned for exhibiting films or digital media (what else will be in this space? black or white walls? lighting levels? etc.); type of projection and screen, type of projector or monitor; plans for avoiding light and sound leaks; list of other planned films in the exhibition; full list of venues and dates, licensing fee budgeted. We cannot process requests without all of the above information. Email to ofischingerinfo (at) gmail.com

Please note that many requests are declined due to insufficient information, unacceptable spaces, or lack of preparation time or fees.

Paintings

Fischinger created over 800 paintings in his lifetime. Many are in major museums and collections worldwide, including Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Solomon Guggenheim Museum New York, Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena CA, and Yale University. A Fischinger painting is in the spectacular touring exhibition Société Anonyme: Modernism for America, touring 2006-2008 at the Hammer Museum Los Angeles, and venues in Washington DC, Dallas, Nashville; and in 2010, Yale University, New Haven, CT. In 2008-09, three Fischinger paintings are in Modernism and the Wichner Collection, at The Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA.

Contact the Fischinger Trust regarding the paintings and drawings of Oskar Fischinger: info (at) oskarfischinger (dot) org or ofischingerinfo (at) gmail (dot) com

Festival, 1963: Purple Eye, 1959; Molecular Study 1965

Photographs and Images

Please direct requests for image reproduction permission, and other image permission requests to Fischinger Archive and ofischingerinfo (at) gmail.com - please provide full and specific details regarding the publication and requested use (print, online, etc; circulation or print run, editor, publication date, etc.). If you are seeking reproduction permission for images to accompany an article, please email text of the article as well. Requests require a minimum of 2 weeks processing time. And yes, you do need to clear permission before publishing a photograph of Fischinger, a still from his films or an image of his paintings.

Papers, Research Material, Resources

The Fischinger Archive is currently not open to the public, though in the future, scholars may have research access. At present some requests for research material can be fulfilled; a small access fee is charged to offset the archive's expenses. Please direct inquiries to Fischinger Archive..

Selected reference material (including William Moritz's research collection) is available to scholars by appointment through The Center for Visual Music, Los Angeles. Online, see the CVM Gallery and CVM's Fischinger research pages.which include Film Notes by Fischinger and others, plus a Bibliography and other resources.

Please note that a great deal of online material, including Wikipedia, is inaccurate about Fischinger's life and work. As a response to the overwhelming amount of inaccuracies currently being disseminated about Fischinger, we are preparing a special site addressing the most common errors in scholarship. Come back soon for factual information.

Some materials, including an original Lumigraph, original Motion Painting panels, and a small number of paintings, animation drawings and papers, are at the Deutsches Filmmuseum in Frankfurt, Germany.

Selected articles are online (below, this page), and on the online library of Center for Visual Music.

Also see William Moritz's Fischinger biography "Optical Poetry: The Life and Work of Oskar Fischinger" published in April 2004 by John Libbey & Co. Available on amazon.com worldwide.

Filmography

Biography - Short and Longer

Selected Bibliography (External site, maintained by CVM)

News and Announcements

• Three Oskar Fischinger paintings (including a 1944 oil on celotex) are in the exhibition Modernism and the Wichner Collection, at The Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA, through August, 2009.
• Several Fischinger films screen at UCLA Film and Television Archive's Billy Wilder Theatre, at The Hammer Museum, in a program on January 21, 2009, curated and presented by Center for Visual Music.
• November, 2008, Motion Painting No. 1 screened at Tate Modern, London.
• Sept-Nov, 2008: Original charcoal animation drawings from Studie nr. 8 exhibited at Akademie der Künste, Berlin, in the Notation exhibition. This exhibition moves to ZKM, Karlsruhe, in 2009.
• July, 2008. Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival, Bologna: Motion Painting No. 1 screened accompanied by the Bologna Orchestra at Piazza Maggiore in special Avant-Garde Evening event. 35mm.
• May 25, 2008: Screening of Oskar Fischinger: Optical Poetry Retrospective at Australian Cinematheque at Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia..
• November 3 - San Diego Museum of Art's Animation Symposium includes Oskar Fischinger and Visual Music Animation - Exhibition and Authenticity in the Age of Digital Reproduction, a lecture with film clips presented by Cindy Keefer of CVM.
• Never-seen home movie footage of Oskar at home in Los Angeles c. 1960, was preserved by The Center for Visual Music.
• Fischinger's original Lumigraph was performed at the Deutsches Filmmuseum, Frankfurt, on February 2, 2007 by Barbara Fischinger, assisted by Cindy Keefer.
• 2006: Two Fischinger paintings are part of exhibitions: one is in The Société Anonyme: Modernism for America (see exhibition schedule for venues); another is at The Laguna Art Museum (California).
• Oskar Fischinger: Ten Films DVD receives Special Mention Award at Il Cinema Ritrovito Festival, Bologna, Italy, July 2006; and was reviewed by Leonard Maltin on his Video View syndicated radio program (June 28), by Jonathan Rosenbaum in Cinema Scope (September) and in Jerry Beck's Cartoon Research. For more press about the DVD, see DVD Press Kit
• Feature article on Fischinger in the Summer (2006) issue of Tate ETC, Tate Museums, UK, Where Abstraction and Comics Collide, by Dr. Esther Leslie
• Radio Dynamics, Study nr. 6 and Ornament Sound were in the ZKM exhibition Light Art from Artificial Light, Nov. 19, 2005 through August, 2006 at ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany. English description.
• "Oskar Fischinger Retrospective" at George Eastman House, Rochester, New York, March 24, 2006.
• Oskar Fischinger Retrospective screened at Lincoln Center, New York January 2, 2006. Featuring 35mm prints preserved by the Academy Film Archive, Center for Visual Music and Fischinger Archive, with the support of Film Foundation, Sony, Deutsches Filmmuseum and Cinematheque Quebecoise. An IB Technicolor print of An Optical Poem screened, thanks to Warner Brothers. Show included many new prints, including R-1 ein Formspiel, Composition in Blue, Motion Painting, Study no. 7. www.filmlinc.com. View the Press Release. Read the Village Voice review.
• Radio Dynamics screened Nov. 9 in UCLA Film & Television Archive's series The Most Typical Avant-Garde (introduced by David James, celebrating the release of his book of that title)
• "Oskar Fischinger: Motion Paintings" Exhibition of Fischinger's paintings at Goethe-Institut, Washington DC, Sept. 8 - Oct. 26, 2005. Accompanying film screening: Oskar Fischinger Retrospective at Goethe, September 19.
• Fischinger in "Visual Music" exhibition press: Artforum magazine, October 2005 and also Summer issue 2005; Washington Post, July 1, 2005, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Weekly, Modern Painters (UK) September 2005, Wall Street Journal..
• "Visual Music" exhibition at MOCA Los Angeles (Feb - May 2005) and The Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC (June 23 - September 11, 2005), included 5 Fischinger films plus animation drawings and Ornament Sound Experiments ephemera. More about the films in the exhibition (Allegretto, Radio Dynamics, Study nr. 7, Lumigraph film excerpt and Ornament Sound excerpt) can also be found at CVM's Visual Music films page. The exhibition catalog features many images and pages on Fischinger, and is available through amazon.com. Fischinger films were also screened (on film) in Center for Visual Music's film screenings accompanying the exhibition.

• "Motion Paintings" Exhibition of Fischinger's paintings, March 11-May 30, 2005 at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts gallery in Hollywood, CA. Press release. Portfolio of paintings in show



• Sons et Lumiere exhibition at Centre Pompidou, Paris (Sept 2004-Jan 2005), included Fischinger's Ornament Sound and Studie 8 films, plus numerous Kreise animation drawings, Ornament Sound drawn sound strips and documentation, and several of his Fantasia-era sketches. The exhibition included work by Oskar's influences and contemporaries including Kandinsky, Klee, Pfenninger, John Cage, Schoenberg, Richter and many others. The exhibition catalog features a number of pages on Fischinger.
• CVM has an online gallery of some of Oskar's animation drawings
• Dr. William Moritz's long awaited biography "Optical Poetry: The Life and Work of Oskar Fischinger" was published in April 2004 by John Libbey & Co. It is distributed in the US by Indiana University Press, and available on amazon.com worldwide. In honor of the book release, events and screenings of Fischinger films were held in Los Angeles on March 14 (Filmforum) and March 17 (Cal Arts), and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley on April 13, 2004.

Bill Moritz and Elfriede Fischinger

• We are deeply saddened at the passing of our dear friend Bill Moritz, on March 12, 2004, in California. His passing leaves a great void in the film world and in our hearts.
• December 2003: The Oskar Fischinger Retrospective of 35mm films screens at Goethe-Institut London, and several venues in Scotland.
• Oskar's "3-D" Film tests screened at the World 3-D Film Expo at The Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, CA, in Sept 2003. Beautiful new 35mm prints were produced for the festival, thanks to SabuCat Productions, Center for Visual Music and Triage Motion Picture Services, Hollywood.
• The Fischinger Archive expresses its sincere condolences on the passing of our friend Jules Engel in September 2003. Jules and Oskar met at Disney in 1939 where they became immediate friends, sharing and supporting each other's painting. We will miss this great talent and good friend.

Request for Information

If you own a Fischinger painting, drawing, or cel, we would appreciate hearing from you. We are maintaining a catalog raisonne and documenting all of the paintings, and appreciate receiving information.

We are also interested in documents, papers, letters and information regarding Oskar Fischinger, particularly correspondence from Oskar. Contact: fischingerarchive (at) msn.com

Articles

Canemaker, John. The Original Laureate of an Abstract Poetry. New York Times, July 2, 2000 (update to this article: The Fischinger Archive no longer has any affiliation with Iota).
-- Elfriede! On the Road with Mrs. Oskar Fischinger, Funnyworld, No. 18, 1978
Fischinger, Elfriede. Writing Light, 1984
Fischinger, Oskar. The Problem of Color and Sound in Film. 1930
-- Sounding Ornaments. 1932
-- My Statements are in My Work. Art in Cinema catalog, San Francisco, 1947
-- True Creation, 1949
-- A Statement About Painting, 1951, for exhibition at Frank Perls Gallery, Los Angeles

Janiak, Larry and Dave Daruszka. Oskar Fischinger. An Interview with Elfriede Fischinger. Zoetrope 1979.
Keefer, Cindy. A Lifetime in Animation: The Glamorous Bill Moritz, Animation World Magazine, June 2003
--"Space Light Art" - Early Abstract Cinema and Multimedia, 1900-1959 White Noise exhibition catalog, ACMI Melbourne, 2005
Langlois, Philippe. Oskar Fischinger Leonardo, Feb 2001
Leslie, Dr. Esther. Where Abstraction and Comics Collide, Tate ETC, Tate Museums, UK, Summer 2006.
Moritz, Dr. William.
-- Oskar Fischinger: Artist of the Century. Animac Magazine, 2001(Lleida, Spain)
-- In Passing...Elfriede Fischinger Animation World Magazine, June 1999
--The Dream of Color Music, and Machines That Made it Possible, Animation World Magazine online, Issue 2.1, 1997
-- Gasparcolor: Perfect Hues for Animation. Presentation at the Louvre, Paris, 1995
-- Oskar Fischinger in America, in Articulated Light program notes, 1995
-- Oskar Fischinger: Leben und Werk, in Optische Poesie, (Frankfurt: Deutsches Filmmuseum, 1993)
-- The Private World of Oskar Fischinger. Liner notes, "The World of Oskar Fischinger" laserdisc, LaserDisc Corporation, Tokyo, 1988.
-- "Abstract Film and Color Music," in The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985 (LACMA exhibition catalog), 1986
-- "Towards a Visual Music," Cantrills Filmnotes, Sydney, August 1985
-- You Can't Get Then From Now, Part I: Oskar Fischinger, in Journal: Southern California Art Magazine, No. 29, 1981
-- "Non-Objective Film: The Second Generation." In Film as Film: Formal Experiment in Film, 1910-1975, Hayward Gallery/Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979. Fischinger excerpt from article.
-- "The Films of Oskar Fischinger," Film Culture No. 58-60, 1974

Morris, Gary. "Oskar Fischinger's Visual Music" Bright Lights Film Journal, Sept 1998
Petzke, Ingo. "TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HIM: Myth, legend and lies in film history"
Willis, Holly. Short Form: Classic Avant-Garde 'Toons Get Reanimated on IFILM

Elfriede Fischinger, c. 1932

Assorted Links:

Wavelengths by Ed Halter, in Village Voice, New York, December 2005
Oskar Fischinger, Fast on the Draw. Review of Painting Exhibition, Washington Post, Sept. 15, 2005
Cartoon in Montreal Mirror, June 2005
Review of "Optical Poetry." by Robin Allan. AWN, 2004
Motion Painting No. 1 on MichaelBarrier.com
Kinetica 2: centenaire Oskar Fischinger. "Oskar Fischinger et le musique visuelle". Pompidou Centre, 2002 (pdf)
The Missing Link: Oskar Fischinger Between European Avant-Garde and New American Cinema, March 2002 by Walter Schobert, at Edinburgh, Scotland Conference "Avant-Garde"
Art in America Review, Oskar Fischinger at Jack Rutberg, June 2001 by Michael Duncan
Film descriptions in Canyon Cinema catalog
Review of Painting Exhibition at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Los Angeles, 2000 by Ray Zone
Review of Painting Exhibition at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, by Mario Cutajar
Artscene: Oskar Fischinger by Mario Cutajar
Milestones of the Animation Industry in the 20th Century, 2000, by Karl Cohen, in Animation World Magazine
Cross-Influence in Abstract German Animation of the Silent Era, 2000
Motion Painting selected for The National Film Registry, Library of Congress, 1997
Oskar Fischinger: A Retrospective Notes on his paintings by Susan Ehrlich, for Tobey Moss Gallery, 1988
John Cage audio interview on KPFA, 1987 (discusses how he met Fischinger)
AskArt Listing: contains brief bibliography of art books and art periodicals regarding Fischinger

 

About Us

The Fischinger Archive (Elfriede Fischinger Trust) is administered by Oskar's daughters Barbara and Angelica Fischinger. Center for Visual Music and Ms. Keefer assist with the films of Oskar Fischinger.

The Archive thanks Deutsches Filmmuseum, Center for Visual Music, Michael Friend, Cinémathèque québécoise, Pacific Film Archive, Goethe Institut Los Angeles, Sony, Il Cinema Ritrovato, John Canemaker, Leonard Maltin, Jerry Beck, Joe Kennedy, Karl Cohen, yann beauvais, Jean-Paul Georgen, Ingo Petzke, Thomas Reynolder, Jonathan Rosenbaum, and many others for their support.

All images copyright The Elfriede Fischinger Trust and Oskar Fischinger, 1922-2008. WARNING: Text and images in these pages are protected by copyright law (Title 17 U.S. Code). Please seek permission for reproducing any images or text.

last updated Dec 6, 2008