To Oskar Fischinger, the potential of abstraction was infinite. As a visionary of abstract expression, Fischinger left an indelible mark in filmmaking history and is considered one of the pioneers of non-objective animation and visual music. Born in Gelnhausen, Germany in 1900, Fischinger gravitated towards creative pursuits in music, special effects, and ultimately filmmaking and painting. His natural aptitude earned him international exposure and awards for his animations and commercials which have influenced generations of animators, designers and filmmakers to this day.
Once Fischinger moved to the United States in 1936, he began to apply his brilliant technical skill and proclivity for abstraction within a new medium: oil painting.
The resulting body of work, spanning the next thirty years and totaling approximately eight hundred paintings, emerged as a prolific and strikingly diverse compendium of visual gestures. Fischinger’s explorations into the seemingly endless possibilities inherent in abstraction demonstrated his playfulness and evident pleasure in delving into one style after another. In these works, Fischinger ranged from mind-bending juxtapositions of layered lines and grids forming visual puzzles, to collections of finely detailed contours forming larger organically emotive works, followed by stark graphic compositions functioning as simplistic analyses of shape. This diversity of expression in Fischinger’s work perhaps could be a visual manifestation of the artist’s connection to the collective unconscious. Fischinger addresses this stating “…the time arrives where the artist begins to relax [and] looses himself into something much bigger much greater than he ever could be. He begins to listen to an inner voice and the work follows an inner dictation or a higher dictation. Above all moods there is a CREATIVE NECESSITY, an inner law.” Expressing the range of his inner voice is Fischinger’s distinct strength, for he is not only demonstrating motion within his compositions, he is showing the mutability of an image in each iteration; a continuous moving rhythm from one work to the next. Given this spontaneity, it is no surprise that Fischinger drew parallels between his work and musical expression. As the artist described it; “This art emphasizes the effect of music. It is to music what wings are to birds. Figures and forms have a definite effect on the consciousness.”
Fischinger’s paintings have received considerable acclaim in exhibitions throughout the world, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Long Beach Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Philips Collection, Washington DC. Fischinger also earned support from The Guggenheim Foundation and took jobs at major studios including Paramount, M.G.M., and Disney. His paintings are well represented in public and private collections internationally. Oskar Fischinger died on January 31, 1967.
Peyton Wright Gallery is the exclusive representative of the the paintings of the Oskar Fischinger Estate.
About the Artist
Born on June 22, 1900, in Gelnhausen, Germany, Fischinger planned to pursue a career in engineering. In the early 1920s, he came into contact with Frankfurt’s avant-garde and soon discovered film’s potential to create a more spiritual, wholly abstract art built on models already established by such artists as Vasily Kandinsky. Fischinger’s early films, like his "Study (Studie)" series (1929–33), present amorphous forms choreographed to popular music. He supported his experimental film career with commercial work, most notably, by designing the special effects for German director Fritz Lang’s 1929 feature "Woman in the Moon (Frau im Mond)."
His natural aptitude took him far in the filmmaking industry, bringing him and his family to Los Angeles, and earning him jobs at major studios including Paramount, M.G.M., and Disney. Fischinger also earned support from The Guggenheim Foundation and was awarded at film festivals internationally.
In the United States, he also applied his brilliant technical skill and proclivity for abstraction within a new medium: oil painting. The resulting body of work, spanning thirty years and totaling some eight hundred paintings, emerged as a prolific and strikingly diverse compendium of visual gestures.
Fischinger's explorations into the seemingly endless possibilities inherent in abstraction demonstrated his playfulness and evident pleasure in delving into one style after another. In these works, Fischinger ranged from mind-bending juxtapositions of layered lines and grids forming visual puzzles, to collections of finely detailed contours forming larger organically emotive works, followed by stark graphic compositions functioning as simplistic analyses of shape, to name a few.
Fischinger's paintings have received considerable acclaim in exhibitions throughout the world, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Long Beach Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philips Collection, Washington D.C., and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. His films and paintings are well represented in public and private collections internationally.
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