The Fischinger Trust

Oskar Fischinger, 1900-1967

Palm Desert California, USA
Tel (760)834-8183

This is the official website of the Trust and a resource for information about the life of Elfreide and
Oskar Fischinger.

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

Contact: fischingerarchive@msn.com regarding paintings or image requests
 

     squares    

Left, original goache from the film Squares, 1934
 
Right, Major Movement, 1948 oil


Books

book

Oskar Fischinger: Experiments in Cinematic Abstraction (2013). Publisher: Thames Hudson, 2013.



Paintings

ptg 1     ptg 2

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's Art Gallery.  Contact the Fischinger Trust for matters regarding the paintings and drawings of Oskar Fischinger: fischingerarchive@msn.com

Photographs and Images

Please direct requests for painting image reproduction permission, and requests to fischingerarchive@msn.com - please provide full and specific details regarding the publication and requested use (print only, ebook, online, etc; circulation or print run, editor of book if applicable, publication date, etc.). If you are seeking reproduction permission for painting images to accompany an article, please email text of the article as well. Requests generally require 2-4 weeks processing time. Permission is required before publishing a photograph of Fischinger, or an image of his paintings.

   

kreise study

Movement diagram for the film Kreise (1933-34)

Papers, Research Material

The Fischinger Trust  

Margaret Herrick Library - www.oscars.org/library

Some materials, including an original Lumigraph, Motion Painting panels, paintings, some animation drawings from Kreise, and papers (German language, some selections from Oskar's early business papers) are at: 
www.filmarchives-online.eu   in Frankfurt, Germany.


Resources

Filmography

Biography - Short and Longer

Selected Bibliography (on External site, the CVM Fischinger Research pages)

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.

Film descriptions in Canyon Cinema catalog


News and Announcements


Bill Moritz and Elfriede Fischinger

Request for Information

If you own a Fischinger painting, drawing, or cell, 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@msn.com

Articles/Essays

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
--"'Raumlichtmusik' - Early 20th Century Abstract Cinema Immersive Environments." Leonardo Electronic Almanac, Creative Data Special Issue, Vol 16, no 6-7. MIT Press/The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology, October 2009. (PDF).
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: 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
Tobias, James. Sync: Stylistics of Hieroglyphic Time. Temple University Press, 2010. See Chapter 3: "For Love of Music: Oskar Fischinger's Modal, Musical Diagram."
Willis, Holly. Short Form: Classic Avant-Garde 'Toons Get Reanimated on IFILM

Elfriede Fischinger, c. 1932

Assorted Links:

Dreams of Abstract Mass Media, by Scott Sona Snibbe, July 2010
Oskar's Oklahoma Gas ad on CVM's Vimeo channel, plus a clip from one of Elfriede's Lumigraph performances
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 Moritz's book "Optical Poetry." by Robin Allan. AWN, 2004
Motion Painting No. 1 on MichaelBarrier.com
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
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 Trust is also known as the Elfriede Fischinger Trust. Previously, Elfriede used the term "The Fischinger Archive" to conduct business.

The Trust and Archive thanks The Deutsche Film Institut, The City of Frankfurt Germany. The Academy Film Archive (Michael Pogorzelski - Director), The Whitney Museum, Tate Modern London, Michael Friend, Pacific Film Archive, Sony, John Canemaker, Cinémathèque québécoise, Goethe Institut Los Angeles, Leonard Maltin, Jerry Beck, Joe Kennedy, Cecile Starr, Yann Beauvais, Jean-Paul Georgen, Heike Sperling, Thomas Reynolder, Timothy Finn, Susan Bolles and many others for their support.

All images copyright The Elfriede Fischinger Trust and Oskar Fischinger, 1922-2015. 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.