Study No. 7

(1931)

- original title: Studie Nr. 7. This short film was one of a dozen "studies" spanning the 1920s and '30s. This one is a gorgeous visual tone poem with a few small, dynamic white shapes popping decoratively out of a sea of blackness.

Study No. 7 was one of a dozen "studies" spanning the 1920s and '30s. This one is a gorgeous visual tone poem with a few small, dynamic white shapes popping decoratively out of a sea of blackness.

"For Study No. 7, Oskar Fischinger found in Johannes Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 5 a perfect vehicle for his optical experiments. On one hand, the sharp, fast rhythms are an ideal counterpoint for Fischinger's first complete exploration of absolute darkness as a space matrix, with hard-edged shapes twisting, flickering and curving through it, rushing past the viewer, razor thin, with astounding illusions of depth. On the other hand, the sensuous gypsy violins are played off against soft but solid shapes that curl about each other with rich geometric languor. Conceived, charted and executed like the rest of the black and white studies with thousands of separate charcoal drawings on paper, the classically simple effects here are no less amazing in their own way than the astounding multiplicity of STUDY NO. 8."

(Dr. William Moritz, Film Culture)

Source: Canyon Cinema

Norman McLaren: "Fischinger was one of the great formative influences in my life. Around 1935, when I was about 20, in my student days at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland, I saw for the first time an "abstract" movie. It was Oskar Fischinger's film done to Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 5. It is difficult to describe adequately the impact it had on me: I was thrilled and euphoric by the film's fluent kinesthesia, which so potently portrayed the movement and spirit of the music. The experience made an incredible impression on me, excited a yearning in me, and was to have a profound, long-lasting influence on many of my films."

Len Lye: "Then I saw Fischinger's Studie Nr. 7 as a short at a regular cinema, and the dynamic dance of abstract light wouldn't go out of my mind... since I didn't have any money for cameras and cels, I started drawing directly on film, in experiments that led to Colour Box. Whenever I had a chance, I would go out of my way to see Fischinger films. He was a true, natural genius. He ought to be sainted, but I guess they don't have Art Saints."

Source: Center for Visual Music

Study No. 7, vierecke, Film

Reading

Oskar Fischinger (1900-1967): Experiments in Cinematic Abstraction (2012) edited by Cindy Keefer and Jaap Guldemond. This new monograph explores the position of Oskar Fischinger's work within the international avant-garde. The book examines his animation and painting, his use of music, his experiences in Hollywood, the Lumigraph, visual music theories, and his influence on today's filmmakers, artists and animators. The book also contains previously unpublished documents including texts by Oskar Fischinger himself, and unshot animation drawings. Essays compiled and commissioned by editor Cindy Keefer include new research and texts by Jean-Michel Bouhours, Jeanpaul Goergen, Ilene Susan Fort, James Tobias, Cindy Keefer, Richard Brown, Paul Hertz, Joerg Jewanski, and more. (Center for Visual Music)

Optical Poetry (2004) by Dr. William Moritz is the long-awaited, definitive biography of Oskar Fischinger. The result of over 30 years of research on this visionary abstract filmmaker and painter. In addition to Moritz's comprehensive biography, it includes numerous photographs in colour and black and white (many never before published), statements by Oskar Fischinger about his films, a newly created extensive filmography, and a selected bibliography. (John Libbey Publishing)

Visual Music: Synaesthesia in Art and Music Since 1900 (2005) traces the history of a revolutionary idea: that fine art should attain the abstract purity of music. Over the past one hundred years some of the most adventurous modern and contemporary artists have explored unorthodox means to invent a kinetic, non-representational art modeled upon pure instrumental music. (Amazon)

Links

Oskar Fischinger (1900-1967) was a German abstract animator, filmmaker, and painter. He made over 50 short animated films, and painted c. 800 canvases, many of which are in museums, galleries and collections worldwide. (Wikipedia)

Study No. 8 (1931) - original title: Studie Nr. 8 by Oskar Fischinger. He "did not have enough money to buy the rights for the second half of Paul Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Despite the lack of the finished ending of the music, this study remains the most complex, most stunning, and for the artist the favorite and most important of the black and white films." (Dr. William Moritz, Canyon Cinema)

Composition in Blue (1935) - original title: Komposition in Blau. Surfaces dominate in the abstract animated film Composition in Blue by Oskar Fischinger. Colorful geometric figures are set in rhythmic motion. The music from Otto Nicolai's The Merry Women of Windsor is impressively visualized through a blending of form and color. (William Moritz: "Oskar Fischinger", in: Deutsches Filmmuseum Frankfurt am Main, Optische Poesie. Oskar Fischinger Leben und Werk, Kinematograph Nr. 9, 1993, p. 42)

Allegretto (1936) - In the short film Allegretto by Oskar Fischinger, diamond and oval shapes in primary colors perform a sensual, upbeat ballet to the music of composer Ralph Rainger. The geometric dance is set against a background of expanding circles that suggest radio waves. (NPR)

Motion Painting No. 1 (1947) - A short animated film in which film artist Oskar Fischinger put images in motion to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no. 3. It is a film of a painting (oil on acrylic glass); Fischinger filmed each brushstroke over the course of 9 months. In 1997, this film was selected for inclusion in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". (Wikipedia)

Michal Levy was born and raised in Israel and graduated from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem, in 2001. She currently resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where she work as an art director. Since childhood, music, dance and painting have been an important part of her life and she has contributed to her passion for exploring the visualization of sound. (Michal Levy)

Trioon I (2003) by Karl Kliem. Music by Carsten Nicolai aka Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Both elements of the music, an analog piano and a digital sinus wave, are represented by two overlapping visual elements: the fading sound of the piano by three abstracted octaves of a keyboard with the keys fading out just as softly as the tones fade from hearing. (Dienststelle)

Rhythm 23 (1923) - original title: Rhythmus 23. More complex than Rhythm 21, the film is nonetheless a logical extent of Richter's conviction that film is modern art. Again, the orchestration of basic geometric forms according to precise rhythmical patterns is the basis for this second experiment. (time4time)

Rhythm 21 (1921) - original title: Rhythmus 21. An early, abstract animation by Hans Richter composed solely of squares and rectangles that change shape. This another attempt by the artist to apply musical principles to screen images. (Glenn Erickson)

Visual Music Archive

Study No. 7

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