Leonardo_36-1_001-098 1/24/03 9:25 AM Page 65 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: <[email protected]>. well as on the contemporary proposition that abstract art was © 2003 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 36, No. 1, pp. 65–68, 2003 65 Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/leon/article-pdf/36/1/65/1571446/002409403321152347.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 Leonardo_36-1_001-098 1/24/03 9:25 AM Page 66 “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 paint- ing [13]. In his book, Cheney devoted an entire chapter to Wilfred, which con- cluded, “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 at- tempt 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 ϫ 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.