Past Exhibitions

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.

Name

Oskar Fischinger: Movement and Spirit

Dates

March 31, 2007 to June 24, 2007

Description

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
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Past Exhibitions

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