Browse the chronological list of past exhibitions at the Saint Louis University Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCRA), or search for a specific exhibition. Click “View” for more information about an exhibition. If you need further information about an exhibition, please contact us.
Oskar Fischinger: Movement and Spirit
March 31, 2007 to June 24, 2007
Oskar Fischinger (1900–1967) was a significant figure in the early days of filmmaking, attracting attention for his technological innovations, imaginative animation techniques, and the sheer bravura of his non-objective films, many of them keyed to classical music in a way that sought to expand dimensions in both visual and auditory experience—that is, visual music.
Fischinger’s approach to abstraction in his films and paintings bears comparison to Kandinsky, Kupka, and other early abstractionists. Fischinger’s artistic work was also a spiritual pursuit consistent with his interest in Theosophy, Buddhism, and Anthroposophy. Pressure from the Nazi regime forced Fischinger to flee to Hollywood in 1936, where he worked on the fringes of the commercial movie industry but continued to earn the appreciation of filmmakers and aficionados even after his death. Recently his work has been increasingly included in American museum exhibitions, including the blockbuster 2005 group exhibition Visual Music, held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. MOCRA is pleased to host the first exhibition of Fischinger’s work in St. Louis, a city with significant ties to modern and contemporary German art.
Movement and Spirit is guest curated by Peter Frank (art critic for LA Weekly and Senior Curator, Riverside Art Museum) and features paintings and drawings by Fischinger. It also celebrates the newly released DVD Oskar Fischinger: Ten Films. The DVD includes many of Fischinger's great film projects, including Motion Painting No. 1 (1947), which features dazzling animated patterns coordinated to Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 and received the Grand Prix at the Brussels Film Festival in 1949.
Movement and Spirit is part of MOCRA: Sources, an occasional series of exhibitions presenting those seminal artists who have influenced the development of modern and contemporary art, and whose impact is seen in the artists of our time who engage the religious and spiritual dimensions in their work.
MOCRA thanks Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Inc., Los Angeles, Barbara Fischinger, The Elfriede Fischinger Trust, and the Center for Visual Music. MOCRA also thanks the Saint Louis Art Museum for assistance in the Oskar Fischinger Tribute evening. MOCRA is grateful for financial support from the Regional Arts Commission.
Oskar Fischinger insisted on an indelible sensory relationship between color and form on the one hand and sound and motion on the other. It was music for the eyes. | Peter Frank
above:
Installation view of Oskar Fischinger: Movement and Spirit at MOCRA, 2007. Photo by Jeffrey Vaughn.
Related programming
Peter Frank: “An Oskar Fischinger Tribute”
Exhibition |
---|
Bernard Maisner: The Hourglass and the Spiral |
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
Erika Diettes: Sudarios |
Regina DeLuise: Vast Bhutan – Images from the Phenomenal World |
Calligraphic Art of Salma Arastu |
Thresholds: MOCRA at 20 - Part Two, The Second Decade |
Rebecca Niederlander: Axis Mundi |
Jordan Eagles: BLOOD / SPIRIT |
Thresholds: MOCRA at 20 - Part One, The First Decade |
Archie Granot: The Papercut Haggadah |
A Tribute to Frederick J. Brown |
Patrick Graham: Thirty Years – The Silence Becomes the Painting |
Adrian Kellard: The Learned Art of Compassion |
Good Friday: The Suffering Christ in Contemporary Art |
James Rosen: The Artist and the Capable Observer |
MOCRA at Fifteen: Good Friday |
Michael Byron: Cosmic Tears |
Miao Xiaochun: The Last Judgment in Cyberspace |
MOCRA at Fifteen: Pursuit of the Spirit |
Oskar Fischinger: Movement and Spirit |
The Celluloid Bible: Marketing Films Inspired by Scripture |
Arshile Gorky: The Early Years – Drawings and Paintings, 1927–1937 |
Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds |
Junko Chodos: The Breath of Consciousness |
DoDo Jin Ming: Land and Sea |
Rito, Espejo y Ojo / Ritual, Mirror and Eye: Photography by Luis González-Palma, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, and Pablo Soria |
Radiant Forms in Contemporary Sacred Architecture: Richard Meier and Steven Holl |
Daniel Ramirez: Twenty Contemplations on the Infant Jesus, an Homage to Oliver Messiaen |
Avoda: Objects of the Spirit – Ceremonial Art by Tobi Kahn |
Tony Hooker: The Greater Good – An Artist's Contemporary View of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study |
Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds, an encore presentation |
Andy Warhol's Silver Clouds: A Fortieth Anniversary Celebration |
Lewis deSoto: Paranirvana |
Robert Farber: A Retrospective, 1985–1995 |
Bernard Maisner: Entrance to the Scriptorium |
Tobi Kahn: Metamorphoses |
MOCRA: The First Five Years |
Steven Heilmer: Pietre Sante | Holy Stones |
Utopia Body Paint Collection and Australian Aboriginal Art from St. Louis Collections |
Manfred Stumpf: Enter Jerusalem |
Frederick J. Brown: The Life of Christ Altarpiece |
Edward Boccia: Eye of the Painter |
Consecrations Revisited |
Keith Haring: Altarpiece – The Life of Christ |
Ian Friend: The Edge of Belief – paintings, sculpture, and works on paper, 1980–1994 |
Eleanor Dickinson: A Retrospective |
Post-Minimalism and the Spiritual: Four Chicago Artists |
Consecrations: The Spiritual in Art in the Time of AIDS |
Sanctuaries: Recovering the Holy in Contemporary Art, Part One |
Body and Soul: The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater |
Transformations: Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
Visible Conservation |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection: The Romero Cross |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Sanctuaries: Recovering the Holy in Contemporary Art, Part Two – Three Major Installations |
Beyond Words: Three Contemporary Artists and the Manuscript Tradition |
MOCRA: 25 |
Gary Logan: Elements |
Gratitude |
Surface to Source |
Quiet Isn't Always Peace |
Tom Kiefer: Pertenencias / Belongings |
Double Vision: Art from Jesuit University Collections |
Lesley Dill: Dream World of the Forest |
Jordan Eagles: VIRAL\VALUE |
This Road Is the Heart Opening: Selections from the MOCRA Collection |
Vicente Telles and Brandon Maldonado: Cuentos Nuevomexicanos |
Open Hands: Crafting the Spiritual |
Selections from the MOCRA Collection |