Print from the original negative of the film Spirals from 1922,1925/26
Motive: 21 x 29,5 cm, cardboard: 32,5 x 39,5 cm
Edition: 100, 30 copies for the Kölnischer Kunstverein
signature and numbering of the widow
Oskar Fischinger’s photo print of an original negative shows a snapshot from the film Spirals, made in 1925 and 1975, posthumously reissued by his widow for the Kunstverein as an edition. The black and white composition is composed of an arrangement of lines that are aligned on the picture surface like a mandala. The central perspective formation creates a kind of suction effect that draws the viewer to a center that is not precisely defined. The film Spirals is one of Fischinger’s first abstract film experiments, which were created under the impression of Walter Ruttmann’s play of light and abstract color flurries. His interest in visual music, in which sound and image are treated as equally constituent elements, led him at this time to abstract, avant-garde multiple projections, which, combined with slide shows, are expanded into dynamic spatial installations.
In the late 1920s his films were very popular. He finally had to leave Germany because the Nazis rejected his abstract experiments. In America Fischinger gets the opportunity to work with the big producers Paramount and Disney, but feels restricted in his independence and in later years turns exclusively to painting. Oskar Fischinger, born in Gelnhausen in 1900, emigrated to the USA in 1936 and lived in Los Angeles until his death in 1967.
