Thomas Wilfred and Intermedia: Seeking a Framework for Lumia

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HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Thomas Wilfred and Intermedia: Seeking a Framework for Lumia

ABSTRACT

The most successful early- Stephen Eskilson 20th-century artist of colored light in the United States was undoubtedly Thomas Wilfred (1889–1968). In the 1920s, his “Lumia” compositions were praised by art critics and performed throughout the U.S. s the technology of electricity and illumi- ican art featured at the Exposition After initially embracing a A musical analogy to explain nation advanced in the early twentieth century, many Ameri- des arts decoratifs in Paris. Wilfred’s Lumia, in the early 1930s he can artists began to promote colored light as an aesthetic European tour also included shifted to an analogy based on language capable of eclipsing other established media. Artists recitals in London and a command painting. In pursuit of this new including Van Deering Perrine, G.A. Shook, Mary Hallock- performance at the Royal Opera context, Wilfred sought to legitimize Lumia through a Greenwalt, Claude Bragdon and Matthew Luckiesh all sought House in Copenhagen. His Ameri- relationship with the Museum of to make an art of “mobile color” or “color music.” The most can recital tours of the 1920s often Modern Art in New York. His consistently successful artist of colored light in the United drew audiences in the thousands career is emblematic of the States, though, was undoubtedly Thomas Wilfred (1889–1968). and received considerable acclaim difficulties inherent in the In the 1920s, his “Lumia” compositions were praised by art from prominent critics such as creation of art using technology early in the 20th century, years critics and performed throughout the country. While the basic Deems Taylor and Kenneth Mac- before the postmodern embrace facts of Wilfred’s art have been well documented in several gowan. of pluralism. publications, including the pages of Leonardo [1], scholars have All of Wilfred’s early work, dating neglected an essential element of Wilfred’s work: the para- from his New York debut in 1922, digm shift he embraced in the early 1930s, moving from a mu- was structured in many ways along the lines of musical com- sical analogy for Lumia to a conceptual framework more position and performance. He wrote Lumia compositions in analogous to painting. In pursuit of this new paradigm, Wil- a variant of musical notation (Fig. 1). These “scores” (Wilfred fred sought to legitimize Lumia through a relationship with called them “keyboard notations”) were then performed by a the Museum of Modern Art in New York. soloist trained on the Clavilux (usually Wilfred, or rarely one Wilfred’s struggle to position his work in terms of other es- of his students). The Clavilux was in some ways similar to the tablished art forms had implications beyond merely his own pipe organ—Wilfred referred to its “keys,” “stops,” etc. He also work; it is a significant example of the difficulties artists faced developed the formal terms for describing Lumia from the vo- when devising aesthetic theories to fit their innovative media. cabulary of music criticism. For example, Wilfred likened his Lumia predates by several decades both the widespread ac- manipulation of form, color and motion to rhythm, harmony ceptance of intermedia and the validation of modern tech- and melody in music [4]. He also began to number his com- nology as the material basis for artworks. Throughout his positions with opus numbers. Finally, Lumia was exhibited career, Wilfred found himself confined by the narrow param- through public performances staged like concerts. eters of the art world as they were defined by powerful insti- A typical recital consisted of a short speech outlining the tutions and collectors. Because Lumia did not fit into any of aesthetic philosophy behind Lumia, followed by a perfor- the accepted aesthetic categories of the day, and because his mance of six or eight pieces, each lasting from 5 to 10 min- idea for an “Eighth Fine Art” did not take hold, Wilfred sought utes. The program usually included several works, such as Black to frame his work in terms of other accepted—and institu- and White (1924, “a dialogue between single and triple forms tionally supported—media. His career was emblematic of the in space” [5]), Triangular Étude (1924, “single central form difficulties inherent in the creation of art from technology with diaphanous accompaniment” [6]) or Study in Rising Forms early in the last century, years before the postmodern embrace (1936, “forms ascending in space and unfolding in color over of pluralism. a restless angular accompaniment” [7]). The pieces explored Thomas Wilfred spent a lifetime refining his instruments themes of movement—“unfolding,” “advancing,” “rising,” etc. and elaborating his beliefs in an art based on the manipula- The typical Clavilux consisted of one or more powerful light tion of colored light. After his first public performance at the projectors with variable focal lengths directing their beams Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City on 10 January 1922, through a carefully devised assortment of prisms, colored gels Wilfred’s popularity soared, and he toured continuously with and slides mounted on electric rotation devices. Wilfred also his Clavilux [2] through 1933, when he established the Art In- used custom-shaped light filaments in order to create form stitute of Light [3] at the Grand Central Palace building in with a direct beam. The artist was limited technically in the New York. His success in America was supplemented by a Eu- amount of detail he could give to his forms, most of which con- ropean tour in 1925, at which time Lumia was the only Amer- sisted of tightly focused areas of brilliant colored light with a vaguely organic shape. Wilfred’s concert-based model of live performance was Stephen Eskilson (educator), Art Department, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL partly based on his experience as a professional lute player, as 60614, U.S.A. E-mail: . well as on the contemporary proposition that abstract art was

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“Already the future of the art of color is evident. The medium of the new art will be light: color in its purest, most intense form” [12]. The following year witnessed the publication of Sheldon Cheney’s sur- vey text, A Primer of Modern Art. Cheney, like Wright, proselytized for mobile color as the art of the future, declaring it a log- ical development in the history of painting [13]. In his book, Cheney devoted an entire chapter to Wilfred, which concluded, “Perhaps, then, this is the begin- ning of the greatest, the most spiritual and radiant art of all” [14]. An unsigned New York Times article dated 8 December 1931 shows Wilfred distancing himself from the music model. This article, titled “New Kind of Painting Uses Light as Medium—Color Forms Projected on Canvas Through Lenses in Box in Invention of Wilfred,” explicitly described Lumia as a type of painting [15]. It also made reference to a canvas support for Lumia (something that Wilfred rarely utilized), a clear attempt to equate Lumia with painting. The body of the article consisted of an interview with the artist. This painting, said to be the first to use the art of light, is intended to be “hung” in the home as are oil paintings, Mr. Wil- Fig. 1. Thomas Wilfred, Sequential Development of Three Form Group, colored pencil and fred said. The picture, an abstract rep- 3 1 pen, and black and colored ink on paper, 19 /4 26 /2 in, 1948. (Digital image © The Mu- resentation of Aspiration, is projected in seum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, New York) a darkened room on a white canvas about four feet wide and three feet high from a tilted box directly in front and below it [16]. a type of “color music.” Most of the crit- In the 1920s, color music in general Note Wilfred’s introduction of the tra- ical writing on Lumia also emphasized its and Wilfred’s work in particular had ditional scale of an easel picture, whereas musical tendencies [8]. For example, in been considered a serious art form. Wil- previous Lumia works had concentrated March 1922 (on the heels of Wilfred’s fred’s shift away from a musical analogy on much larger sizes. Later in the Times first public performance), the critic Rod- for Lumia resulted largely from a waning article Wilfred is quoted emphasizing the erick Seidenberg concluded that its of critical and popular interest in his benefits of Lumia as opposed to painting: strongest affinity was with music: work later in the decade. He had tried unsuccessfully in 1928 to establish Lumia These pictures . . . have a depth impos- The progression which the Clavilux re- as a legitimate partner of symphonic per- sible to attain with oils or water colors, veals is the visual realization of emo- and furthermore they are imperishable, tions. . . . In this sense the compositions formance: in July of that year Leopold since the colors are fused in glass. Light of the Clavilux are more nearly related Stokowski had invited him to join the has hitherto been neglected as an art to music than to any other art—but this Philadelphia Orchestra as a soloist for form. . . . Light, however, is the greatest does not imply any relationship between two performances of Rimsky-Korsakov’s power in the world, and there is no rea- color and sound. The Clavilux is com- Sheherazade. This concert, like the per- son why Lumia should not become the parable to music because of the intensity, eighth art [17]. power and range of its emotional effects formance of Scriabin’s Prometheus 13 [9]. years before, received little favorable no- Wilfred’s combative stance makes it tice. Coming as it did already several clear how much he wanted to position his Surely its “power and range” rested years after the zenith of Wilfred’s “con- art within the painting tradition while at largely in Lumia’s ability to bring a time cert” success (his tours of 1925 to 1926), the same time in opposition to it. element into the visual arts, a fact Wilfred this disappointment may have further Wilfred’s first clear success as a emphasized when comparing Lumia to pushed Wilfred to reevaluate his place in “painter” came in 1942, when Alfred music [10]. Between 1929 and 1931, how- the discourse of musical aesthetics [11]. Barr Jr. bought Vertical Sequence, Op. 137 ever, Wilfred altered his strategy and When Wilfred began to align Lumia (Fig. 2) for the New York Museum of began work on self-playing Claviluxes with painting, he had the example of two Modern Art’s collection. For the rest of that could be displayed like paintings. influential art critics to guide him. In his career, Wilfred pursued a relationship Consequently, he reconcontextualized 1923 the critic Willard Huntington with the MoMA based on his realigning Lumia, divorcing it from the context of Wright had asserted in an art primer, The of Lumia with modernist painting. Fur- musical aesthetics and realigning it con- Future of Painting, that the future of paint- thermore, there may be a historical con- ceptually with modernist painting. ing lay in the realm of projected light. junction between Wilfred’s change to a

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seemed to be invoking many of the tropes of abstract expressionist painting, in both his description of a flat white screen—presenting his art as respectful of the medium—and in his portrayal of Lumia as an abstract drama. The men- tion of the flat screen is especially inter- esting considering the emphasis he had previously placed on the illusionistic depth of Lumia. Wilfred also used this statement to denounce any further com- parison between Lumia and music. In his statement for 15 Americans, Wilfred re- jected even the loosest analogy: Lumia is neither composed nor performed like music. . . . Lumia may never be played in the manner of music and I see no reason at all for striving toward this goal. The two arts are so different in nature that attempts to design Lumia instruments in imitation of musical ones will prove as futile as attempts to write Lumia compositions by following the conventional rules laid down for music [21]. This statement is conspicuous for its uncompromising attitude, especially when one considers his longtime embrace of the trappings of musical performance. In the catalogue for 15 Americans, there appear a number of striking parallels between Wilfred’s artistic philosophy and that which the abstract expressionist painter Alfonso Ossorio formulated on behalf of Jackson Pollock. Ossorio wrote rhetorically, “Why the tension and com- plexity of line, the violently interwoven movement so closely knit as almost to in- Fig. 2. Thomas Wilfred, Vertical Sequence, Op. 137, Lumia composition (projected light on duce the static quality of perpetual mo- translucent screen; form cycle 7 min; color cycle 7 min 17 sec; the two cycles coincide every tion, the careful preservation of the 50 hours 59 minutes; glass screen 15 1/4 15 3/8 in, 1941). (Digital image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, New York) picture’s surface plane linked with an in- tricately rich interplay upon the canvas?” [22]. This sentence contains many of the painting analogy for Lumia and the suc- ment for Wilfred to be included in such same elements as Wilfred’s discussion of cess of the museum. From the museum’s a prominent show, one that included Lumia. In fact, Ossorio’s and Wilfred’s founding in 1929 onward, the Rockefel- Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still and Jackson statements are almost interchangeable in ler family and other wealthy individuals Pollock. 15 Americans represented the many of their emphases: the flat picture provided considerable financial support first substantial recognition by the MoMA plane, the dramatic quality of the forms to the museum, increasing its aesthetic not only of Wilfred, but of the already and the heroic nature of their aesthetics. and social visibility year by year [18]. The celebrated art of Pollock as well. The When Ossorio wrote that Pollock’s forms high profile of the MoMA, as well as the accompanying catalogue reproduced and textures “germinate, climax and de- interest that Barr Jr. and other curators statements from all of the artists included cline, coalesce and dissolve across the showed in his work, may have led Wilfred in the show, or their supporters. canvas” or that Pollock’s pictures “give to consider positioning Lumia as an en- Wilfred’s personal statement for 15 the sense that [they] could be continued deavor more closely allied to painting Americans, while repeating many of the indefinitely in any direction,” he used than to music. fundamental precepts of his aesthetic language that could have been pulled out The climactic success of Thomas Wil- thought, placed a strong emphasis on the of any number of Wilfred’s writings about fred’s alignment with painting came in analogy with modernist painting. “The Lumia over the preceding 30 years. At 1952 via his inclusion in the MoMA’s 15 Lumia artist visualizes his composition as this point in his career, in the midst of at- Americans exhibition, curated by Dorothy a drama of moving form and color un- tempting to align Lumia with painting, Miller [19]. 15 Americans was one of a se- folding in dark space. In order to share Wilfred must have been gratified both by ries of exhibitions at the MoMA, begun his vision with others he must material- his inclusion in a significant show with in 1929, that devoted a large amount of ize it. This he does by executing it as a Pollock et al. as well as by the similarities space to contemporary artists working in two-dimensional sequence projected on between his artistic goals and those of the the United States. It was quite an achieve- a flat white screen” [20]. Here Wilfred abstract expressionists.

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The actual extent of contact between were shunted the other way, out of the 6. Description based on Wilfred’s writings; quoting Wilfred and the abstract expressionist realm of triumphant modernism and from Stein [1] p. 81. painters in New York City remains un- into a basement gallery [25]. 7. Description based on Wilfred’s writings; quoting satisfactorily documented, despite two Taken in context with the MoMA’s from Stein [1] p. 82. suggestive anecdotes. First, it is signifi- broad de-emphasizing of Wilfred’s work, 8. George Vail, “Visible Music: The Birth of a New cant that two of Pollock’s friends, Palmer this literal positioning was a clear rejec- Art,” The Nation 115, No. 2978, 121–124 (1922). Schoppe and Tony Smith, claim that Pol- tion of the artist’s attempt to associate 9. Roderick Seidenberg, “Mobile Painting—The lock spent countless evenings in the Lumia with modernist painting. By los- Clavilux,” International Studio 75, No. 299 (March 1922) p. 86. 1930s in New York at Wilfred’s Art Insti- ing the institutional imprimatur of the tute of Light, studying Lumia [23]. At the MoMA, Wilfred’s quest to align Lumia 10. See [4]. institute Pollock surely must have heard with abstract expressionism was reduced 11. Ironically, Wilfred never played with Stokowski Wilfred’s theories on Lumia, especially to little more than a vague analogy. again, but in 1930 Stokowski’s wife, Eleanor, bought one of the first self-playing Claviluxes. because each and every recital was pre- Wilfred struggled at different times to ceded by a short speech on the new aes- position his unorthodox art within the 12. Willard Huntington Wright, The Future of Paint- ing (New York: B.W. Huebsch, 1923) p. 50. thetic. A second point of contact between institutions of both music and painting, Pollock and Wilfred can be traced but ultimately failed in both endeavors. 13. Sheldon Cheney, A Primer of Modern Art (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1924). through their mutual acquaintance with Unsurprisingly, a review of his writings Chilean painter Roberto Matta Echaur- suggests that Wilfred remained ambiva- 14. Cheney [13] p. 188. ren. Matta, a member of the French sur- lent about Lumia’s relationship to either 15. “New Kind of Painting Uses Light as Medium: realist emigré circle centered around medium; he continually expressed a de- Color Forms Projected on Canvas Through Lenses in Box in Invention of Wilfred,” the New York Times Andre Breton, developed close contacts sire to create an “Eighth Fine Art” that (8 December 1931). with the young American abstract ex- would be distinct from all other forms of 16. See [15] p. 34, column 5. pressionist painters after he arrived in art. Overall, his embrace of music and New York in 1939 (Matta was one of only painting was essentially pragmatic: an at- 17. Wilfred quoted in Ref. [15] p. 34, column 5. a handful of surrealists who spoke En- tempt to fit Lumia into an artworld that 18. Russell Lynes, Good Old Modern: An Intimate Por- glish). Matta also became friends and co- had no place for it. trait of the Museum of Modern Art (New York: Athenaeum, 1973). The founders of the MoMA were authored a book with modern art patron Lillie Bliss, Mary Quinn Sullivan and Abby Aldrich Katherine Dreier. Dreier had previously Rockefeller, Jr. Other trustees included A. Conger References and Notes Goodyear, Mrs. W. Murray Crane, Frank Crownin- befriended Wilfred in the 1920s. In- shield (editor of Vanity Fair) and Paul Sachs. triguingly, in a letter to Wilfred in 1942, 1. The most complete discussion of Wilfred can be Dreier wrote, “I am glad that Matta has found in Donna M. Stein, Thomas Wilfred: Lumia, A 19. 15 Americans, exh. cat., Dorothy Miller, curator Retrospective Exhibition, exh. cat. (Washington, DC: (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1952). turned to you” [24]. Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1971). See also Kenneth The 15 Americans exhibition marked Peacock, “Instruments to Perform Color-Music: Two 20. See Miller [19] p. 30. Centuries of Technical Experimentation,” Leonardo 21. See Miller [19] p. 30. the only time when the MoMA included 21, No. 4, 397–406 (1988); and Bulat Galeyev, “The Lumia within the context of its influen- Fire of Prometheus: Music-Kinetic Art Experiments in 22. See Miller [19] p. 75. tial presentation of the history of mod- the USSR,” Leonardo 21, No. 4, 383–396 (1988). 23. William Moritz, “Abstract Film and Color Music,” ern art. The fact that Wilfred’s and 2. Wilfred coined the word “Clavilux” as the name in The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890–1985, Pollock’s art were grouped in the same for his proprietary instruments. It means “light exh. cat., Maurice Tuchman et al., eds, (Los Ange- played by key.” les, CA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art and paradigm as late as 1952 may seem Abbeville Press, 1986) pp. 297–311. strange to an observer today, and it 3. The Art Institute of Light was Wilfred’s studio and performance space in New York City. It featured seat- 24. Thomas Wilfred Papers, Yale University Library stands as evidence of the marginalization ing for 100 spectators. Special Collections, New Haven, CT. of Wilfred’s work in subsequent decades. 4. Wilfred’s views are recorded in a variety of docu- 25. In 1971 the MoMA exhibited a small retrospec- For in the years after 1952, while Pollock, ments found in File 5, Thomas Wilfred Papers, Yale tive based on the show Donna M. Stein had orga- Still and Rothko secured their places Univ. Library Special Collections, New Haven, CT. nized at the Corcoran Museum (see Ref. [1]). within the MoMA’s master narrative on 5. Description based on Wilfred’s writings; quoting the second floor, Lumia and Wilfred from Stein [1] p. 81. Manuscript received 3 January 2001.

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