CVM's Fischinger Pages: Selected Oskar Fischinger Bibliography - Chronological
Still from Allegretto
Schneider, Rudolph. "Formspiel durch Kino," Frankfurter Zeitung 12 July 1926.
Fischinger, Oskar. "Farb-Tonproblem des Films." Short speech before his film Studie nr 5, at Farbe-Ton Kongress, Hamburg, 5 October, 1930. 2 page typescript.
Böhme, Fritz. "Der Tanz der Linien." Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung 16 Aug. 1930.
Behm, Walther. "Abstrakte Filmstudie Nr. 5 von Oskar Fischinger (Synästhetischer Film)." Farbe-Ton-Forschungen, ed. Georg Anschütz. Vol. III. Hamburg: Meissner, 1931: 367-369.
Diebold, Bernhard. "Über Fischingerfilme: das ästhetische Wunder." Lichtbildbühne 1 June 1932.
Fischinger, Oskar. "Klingende Ornamente." Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, Kraft Und Stoff 28 July 1932. English version: Sounding Ornaments
Bohme, Fritz. "Tönende Ornamente: Aus Oskar Fischingers neuer Arbeit." Film-Kurier 30 July 1932.
Fischinger, Oskar. "Der Absolute Tonfilm: Neue Möglichkeiten fur den bildenen Künstler," syndicated: Film-Dortmunder Zeitung, 1 January 1933, Schwäbischer Merkur, 3 January 1933, etc.
Unknown. "Film Painter." Time 12 Dec 1938. Online at Time.com
Knight, Arthur. "The Small Screen." Theatre Arts 31.5 (May 1947): 1, 9-10.
Fischinger, Oskar. "My Statements are in My Work." in Art in Cinema, Frank Stauffacher, ed. San Francisco: Art in Cinema Society-San Francisco Museum of Art, 1947: 38-40. Reprint New York: Arno Press, 1968. Online at CVM Fischinger site.
Manvell, Roger ed. Experiment in the Film. London: Grey Walls Press, 1949. 131, 140, 198, 229-230, 233.
Fischinger, Oskar. "Véritable Creation." Le Cinéma À Knokke-Le-Zoute. 1950: 35-37. English version online
Fischinger, Oskar. "A Statement About Painting" for Frank Perls Gallery brochure. 1951.
Cotta, Ty. "Oskar Fischinger: Abstract Movie Master." Modern Photography Vol 16:7 (July 1952), 74-75, 82, 84.
Millier, Arthur. "Fischinger Still Paintings on Exhibit at Pasadena." Los Angeles Times 30 Dec. 1956.
Renan, Sheldon. An Introduction to The American Underground Film. New York: Dutton, 1967. 51, 59, 79, 81-82, 93-95, 116.
Weaver, Mike. "The Concrete Films of Oskar Fischinger." Art And Artists 4.2 (1969): 30-33.
Long Beach Museum of Art. Bildmusik: Art of Oskar Fischinger. Long Beach, CA, 1970.
Moritz, William. "Oskar Fischinger: Fantasia's Forerunner." Coast FM & Fine Arts 11.6 (June 1970): 44-45
Curtis, David. Experimental Cinema. London: Studio Vista, 1971. 30, 53-61, 131, 134.
Starr, Cecile. Discovering the Movies: An Illustrated Introduction to the Motion Picture. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1972.
Moritz, William. "The Films of Oskar Fischinger." Film Culture 58-60 (1974): 37-188.
Martin, André. "Pourquoi il Faut Voir, Revoir et Revoir Encore les Films de Oskar Fischinger." Ottawa '76 International Animated Film Festival. Cinémathèque Québecoise, 1976.
Moritz, William. "The Importance of Being Fischinger." Ottawa '76 International Animated Film Festival. Cinémathèque Québecoise, 1976. online at CVM Library.
Russett, Robert and Cecile Starr. Experimental Animation. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1976. Rev. ed. New York: Da Capo Press, 1988.
Moritz, William. Fischinger at Disney - or Oskar in the Mousetrap. Millimeter. 5. 2 (1977): 25-28, 65-67.
Canemaker, John. "Elfriede! On the Road with Mrs. Oskar Fischinger." Funnyworld 18 (Summer 1978): 4-14. Online at CVM
Hein, Birgit, and Wulf Herzogenrath, eds. Film Als Film, 1910 Bis Heute. Kölnischer Kunstverein, 1978: pp. 74-78.
Moritz, William. "Non-Objective Film: The Second Generation." In Film as Film: Formal Experiment in Film, 1910-1975, Hayward Gallery/Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979. Fischinger Excerpt
Janiak, Larry and Dave Daruszka. "Oskar Fischinger: An Interview with Elfriede Fischinger." Zoetrope, 1979. Online at CVM Fischinger site
Rosenblum, Gordon. Oskar Fischinger, 1900 - 1967. Fischinger, a Retrospective of Paintings and Films. Curators Gerald Nordland and Gordon Rosenblum. Denver, CO: Gallery 609, 1980.
Fischinger, Elfriede. "Writing Light" in Fischinger: A Retrospective of Paintings and Films exhibition catalog (Denver, CO: Gallery 609, 1980). Reprinted in The Relay. 3.2 (May 1984): 4-7. Reprinted in First Light, Robert A. Haller, ed. New York: Anthology Film Archives, 1998: 30-34. online at CVM Library.
Moritz, William. "You Can't Get Then from Now." (Part I). Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Arts Journal 29 (1981): 26-40, 70-72. online at the CVM Library.
Rigby, Ida Katherine. "Oskar Fischinger (1900-1967)," in The Milton Wichner Collection (exhibition catalog). Long Beach: Long Beach Museum of Art, 1981.
Bohn, Richard. "Visual Music Pioneer: Oskar Fischinger" in The Relay. Reseda: Visual Music Alliance (October1982), p. 3.
Canemaker, John. "The Abstract Films of Oskar Fischinger." Print Magazine 37.2 (March/April 1983): 66-72.
Moritz, William. "Towards a Visual Music." Cantrills Filmnotes 47-48 (1985): 35-42.
v. Maur, Karin. Vom Klang der Bilder: Die Musik in der Kunst des 20.Jahrhunderts. Munchen: Prestel, 1985
Moritz, William. "Abstract Film and Color Music." The Spiritual In Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985. New York: Abbeville, 1986: 296-311. Fischinger Excerpt online at CVM
Beauvais, Yann, Dusimbere, Deke, (sous la dir. de), Musique Film, Scratch / Cinémathèque Française, Paris, May 1986.
Stockbridge, Sally. `Intertextuality: Video Music Clips and Historical Film' in T. O'Regan & B. Shoesmith, eds. History on/and/in Film. Perth: History & Film Association of Australia, 1987.
Bendazzi, Giannalberto. Cartoons: Il cinema d'animazione, 1888-1988. Venice: Marsilio Editori, 1988. English edition: Cartoons: One Hundred Years of Cinema Animation. Trans. Anna Tarabolettti-Segre. London: John Libbey & Company Ltd., 1994.
Moritz, William. The Private World of Oskar Fischinger. Liner Notes,"The World of Oskar Fischinger" laserdisc, LaserDisc Corporation, Tokyo, 1988.
Peacock, Kenneth. "Instruments to perform color-music: Two centuries of technological experimentation," Leonardo, 21 (1988).
Ehrlich, Susan. "Oskar Fischinger." Turning The Tide: Early Los Angeles Modernists, 1920-1956. Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1990. 63-67.
Moritz, William. "Film Censorship During the Nazi Era." Degenerate Art: The Fate of The Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany. New York: Abrams, 1991: 184-191. German edition: Entartete Kunst: Das Schicksal Der Avantgarde Im Nazi-Deutschland. Munich: Hirmer, 1992: 184-191.
Lorenz, Marianne. "Oskar Fischinger." Theme And Improvisation: Kandinsky and The American Avant-Garde. Dayton Art Institute, 1992: 159-162.
Mattis, Olivia. Varese's Multimedia Conception of "Deserts." The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 76, no 4 (Winter, 1992). On JSTOR.
Moritz, William. "Oskar Fischinger" in Optische Poesie: Oskar Fischinger, Leben und Werk. Herbert Gehr, Ed. Frankfurt: Deutsches Filmmuseum, 1993: 7-90. contains errata
Moritz, William. "Oskar Fischinger: artiste de ce siècle." L'armateur 12 (1994): 29-33.
Moritz, William. "Musique de la Couleur - Cinéma Intégral." in Poétique de la Couleur. Paris: Musée du Louvre, 1995. English version online at CVM Library.
Cantrill, Arthur. La couleur au cinéma - Poétique de la couleur (Review) in Cantrills Filmnotes No. 79/80, Nov. 1995.
Smith, Harry. "Oskar Fischinger." Articulated Light: The Emergence of Abstract Film in America. Gerald O'Grady and Bruce Posner, Eds. Boston: Harvard Film Archives, 1995: 9.
Karlstrom, Paul J., ed. On the Edge of America - California Modernist Art 1900 - 1950. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1996. 13, 224-228, 232, 238, 283.
Moritz, William. "Gasparcolor: Perfect Hues for Animation." Animation Journal 5. Maureen Furniss, Ed. (1996): 52-57. ONLINE at CVM Fischinger pages.
Moritz, William. "Oskar Fischinger." in L'art du mouvement. Jean-Michel Bouhours, Ed. Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou. 1996: 154
Moritz, William. "The Dream of Color Music, and Machines That Made it Possible." Animation World Magazine 2.1 (1997)
Boehmer, Konrad. Schönberg and Kandinsky: an historic encounter. Taylor & Francis, 1997. (See Lumigraph reference).*
Brinckmann, Christine Noll. Collective Movements and Solitary Thrusts: German Experimental Film 1920-1990. Millenium Film Journal 30/31, Fall 1997.
Knight, Christopher. "First Class Study of Fischinger's Impact." Los Angeles Times 2 May 1998: F1.
Allan, Robin. Walt Disney and Europe: European influences on the animated feature films of Walt Disney. Indiana University Press, 1999.
Culhane, John. Fantasia 2000: Visions of Hope. Disney Editions, 1999.
Moritz, William. "Oskar Fischinger, artista del secolo, Gli anni americani." Cinegrafie 13 (2000): 112-117 (Italian). In English: 278-282.
Barron, Stephanie, Sheri Bernstein, and Ilene Susan Fort, eds. Reading California - Art, Image, and Identity, 1900-2000. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000: 44, 49 n. 40.
Levin, Golan. Painterly Interfaces for Audiovisual Performance. Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000. NOTE: Contains errors re the Lumigraph.
Moritz, William. "Oskar Fischinger: Artist of the Century." Animac Magazine (2001), Mostra Internacional de Cinema d'animació
MacDonald, Scott. Cinema 16: Documents Toward a History of the Film Society. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2002.
Galard, J., ed. et al, L'Oeuvre d'Art Totale. Paris: Gallimard and Musée du Louvre, 110, 123-131, 133-137.
Moritz, William. Optical Poetry: The Life and Work of Oskar Fischinger. Eastleigh: John Libbey, 2004
Duplaix, Sophie and Marcella Lista, eds. Sons & Lumieres: Une histoire du son dans l'art du XXe siecle. Paris: Editions du Centre Pompidou, 2004.
Klein, Norman M. The Vatican to Vegas: The History of Special Effects. New Press, 2004.
Chace Productions. The Art of Soundtracks. Chacers, Dec. 2004 - PDF
Brougher, Kerry, ed., et al. Visual Music: Synaesthesia in Art and Music since 1900. London and New York: Thames & Hudson, 2005
Kimmelman, Michael. "With Music for the Eye and Colors for the Ear," New York Times, July 1, 2005.
Gopnik, Blake. "Music to Your Eyes," Washington Post, June 23, 2005 (review of Hirshhorn Visual Mudic exhibition).
James, David. The Most Typical Avant-Garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
Levin, Thomas Y. "Tones from Out of Nowhere": Rudolph Pfenninger and the Archaeology of Synthetic Sound. New Media, Old Media: A History and Theory Reader. Wendy Hui Chun, Thomas W. Keenan, eds. New York: Routledge, 2005.
Keefer, Cindy. "Space Light Art": Early Abstract Cinema and Multimedia, 1900-1959". White Noise. Ernest Edmonds and Mike Stubbs, eds. Melbourne: ACMI, 2005. 21-28, 30-31, 33. ex.cat. Online version contains minor edits, 2008.
Cox, Christoph. "Lost in Translation: Christoph Cox on Sound in the Discourse of Synesthesia." Artforum, October 2005.
Zone, Ray. "Bi-Optic Abstracts: The Stereo Paintings of Oskar Fischinger." Stereoscopy 67, March 2006. Zurich: International Stereoscopic Union
Jewanski, Jörg and Natalia Sidler, Eds. Farbe - Licht - Musik: Synästhesie und Farblichtmusik. Bern: Peter Lang, 2006. (Part of the series, Zurcher Musikstudien Band 5).
MacDonald, Scott, ed. Art in Cinema: Documents Toward a History of the Film Society. Temple University Press, 2006.
Leslie, Esther. "When Abstraction and Comics Collide." Tate ETC 7 (Summer 2006): 44-49. Online version
Deisl, Heinrich. Absolute Bilderwelten. Ray Filmmagazin, September 2007. Vienna.
van Campen, Cretien. The Hidden Sense: Synesthesia in Art and Science. MIT Press (Leonardo Books), 2007.
San Diego Museum of Art. Animated Painting. San Diego: San Diego Museum of Art, 2007. (exhibition catalogue)
Draganski, Donald. "Paul Hindemith Meets Walt Disney." Essay on Michael Barrier's blog, posted Feb 16, 2007.
Beck, Jay and Tony Grajeda. Lowering the Boom: Critical Studies in Film Sound. University of Illinois Press, 2008. *
Wahl, Jan. Through a Lens Darkly. BearManor Media, 2008.
Appelt, Deiter and Hubertus von Amelunxen and Peter Weibel. Notation. Berlin: Akademie der Künste, 2008 (in German, exhibition catalogue)
Keefer, Cindy. "Cosmic Cinema and The Vortex Concerts." in Cosmos: The Search for the Origins, from Kupka to Kubrick. Arnauld Pierre, Ed. Madrid:El Umbral/Santa Cruz de Tenerife:TEA, 2008. Exhibition catalog.
Elder, Bruce. Harmony and Dissent. Film and Avant-Garde Movements in the Early Twentieth Century. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 2008 (Contains errata)
Kehr, Dave. "Marching Backward into the Avant-Garde," New York Times, February 27, 2009
Karole Vail, ed. The Museum of Non-Objective Painting: Hilla Rebay and The Origins of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 2009.
Bock, Hans-Michael and Tim Bergfelder, eds. The Concise Cinegraph: encyclopaedia of German cinema. Oxford UK and New York: Berghahn Books, 2009.
Rainer, Cosima et al. See This Sound: Promises in Sound and Vision. Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz and Walter Koenig, Koln, 2009. Exhibition catalog.
Keefer, Cindy. 'Raumlichtmusik' - Early 20th Century Abstract Cinema Immersive Environments Leonardo Electronic Almanac Vol 16, no.6-7 . Leonardo, Journal of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology. October 2009. PDF.
Melchior, Ib. Six Cult Films from The Sixties. BearManor Media, 2009. See chapter on Time Travelers (re The Lumigraph).
Daniels, Dieter and Sandra Naumann, eds. Audiovisuology Compendium. Koln: Walther Koenig, 2010.
Tobias, James. Sync: Stylistics of Hieroglyphic Time. Temple University Press, 2010. See Chapter 3: "For Love of Music: Oskar Fischinger's Modal, Musical Diagram."
Snibbe, Scott. Dreams of Abstract Mass Media. Blog Post, snibbe.com, October 2010
Keefer, Cindy. Jordan Belson, Cosmic Cinema and the San Francisco Museum of Art. SF MoMA Open Space, Blog post October 2010.
Poundstone, William. Oskar Fischinger's Love Machine. Art Info International Blog: "Los Angeles County Museum on Fire," April 6, 2011
Hilty, Greg and Alona Pardo, eds. Watch Me Move: The Animation Show. London and New York: Merrell, 2011. Published in association with The Barbican Art Gallery.
Beard, Thomas, Ed. The Unfinished Film. New York: Gladstone Gallery, 2011 (Fischinger's "Sounding Ornaments" text is reprinted here).
Satz, Aura. Shapes with the Sound of their own Making. Cabinet magazine, Issue 44 (Winter 2011/12).
Brown, Richard H.. “‘The Spirit Inside Each Object’: John Cage, Oskar Fischinger, and ‘The Future of Music.’” The Journal of the Society of American Music. Vol. 6, no. 1, February 2012.
Keefer, Cindy. Oskar Fischinger and California Abstract Animation. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, UNFRAMED. April 28, 2012.
Kiening, Christian and Heinrich Adolf, eds. Der absolute Film. Dokumente der Medienavantgarde (1912-1936). Zurich: Chronos, 2012.
Johnson, Ken. "The Lines and Shapes of a Mystical Stenography: Signs and Symbols and Oskar Fischinger at The Whitney Museum," New York Times, July 26, 2012 (online), July 27, 2012 (print).
Buchan, Suzanne. "Three's Company." Artforum.com. September 25, 2012 (on Raumlichtkunst).
Meade, Fionne. "Oskar Fischinger, True West", in SPIKE Art Quarterly, Vienna, Austria. Autumn 2012 (on Raumlichtkunst).
Diehl, Carol. "Oskar Fischinger, New York, Whitney Museum." in Art in America. November, 2012 (on Raumlichtkunst).
Keefer, Cindy and J. Guldemond, eds. Oskar Fischinger (1900-1967): Experiments in Cinematic Abstraction. Amsterdam and Los Angeles: EYE Filmmuseum and Center for Visual Music, 2012 (Europe, 2012; US 2013 publication). Distributed by Thames & Hudson. Monograph with texts by Keefer and international art historians, musicologists and film historians including Jean-Michel Bouhours, Ilene Susan Fort, Jeanpaul Georgeon, Esther Leslie, Paul Hertz.
Peterson, Jennifer Lynn. Education in the School of Dreams. Duke University Press, 2013.
Frederick, Samuel. Cinematic Collecting: The Continuous Discontinuity of the Still Frame in Oskar Fischinger's Walking from Munich to Berlin. in animation: an Interdisciplinary Journal, Suzanne Buchan, ed. Sage Journals, Vol 8, no 3, November 2013.
Ivey, Paul Eli. "Enchanted Modernities: Mysticism, Landscape, and the American West." The Senses and Society, 10:1, 92-98, 2015.
Mollaghan, Aimee. The Visual Music Film. Palgrave, 2015.
Keefer, Cindy. "Visual Music's Influence on Contemporary Abstraction" in Gabrielle Jennings, ed., Abstract Video, The Moving Image in Contemporary Art. UC Press, 2015. Book Chapter.
Diebold, Bernhard and Richard George Elliott. "The Future of Mickey Mouse (The Animated Film as a New Cinema Art)." Art in Translation, Vol 8, no 1.
Smith, Roberta. "Diving into Movie Palaces of the Mind at the Whitney." New York Times, Dec 1, 2016. "...the great Oskar Fischinger"
Cavna, Michael. Oskar Fischinger: Salute the Animation Legend with this beautifully interactive Google Doodle. Washington Post, June 22, 2017
Barcio, Phillip. The Mesmerizing Animations of Oskar Fischinger. Ideel Art (online), 2017.
Keefer, Cindy. Raumlichtkunst - Fischinger and Abstract Cinema Immersive Environments. Exhibition Catalog, Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, December, 2017.
Pratt, Eric. Space Light Art: Oskar Fischinger's Raumlichtkunst Makes S.F. Debut. SF Weekly (online version), December 27, 2017.
Canemaker, John. Oskar Fischinger: Visual Music (DVD Review). Animated Eye Blog, February 12, 2018.
Bartels, Kristin. "Rhythm and Light: Absolute Film in Germany and the United States" in Bauhaus and America, Exhibition catalog, Kerber Verlag, 2018
Pedersen, Kristian. Graphic Listening. in Poetry Film Magazine, September 2018
Brown, Richard H. Through the Looking Glass: John Cage and A:vant-Garde Film. Oxford University Press, 2019.
Street, Sarah and Joshua Yumibe. Chromatic Modernity: Color, Cinema and Media of the 1920s. Columbia University Press, 2019.
Egan, Kelly. 'Tones from Out of Nowhere' and Other Non-sensedness: Re-membering the Synthetic Sound Films of Oskar Fischinger and Lazslo Moholy-Nagy, in Animation. 2020;15(2):160-178.
Keefer, Cindy. "Oskar Fischinger: The Creative Spirit" in Movement Making Movement, Exhibition Catalog. Seoul: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, 2021.
Keefer, Cindy. "Stories of Experimental Animation" in Cecile Starr and Experimental Animation, Scott Hammen, Ed. Paris: Eyewash Books, 2021.
Taggart, Emma. "Get in Sync with Oskar Fischinger, a 20th Century Pioneer of Experimental Animation" at My Modern Met online. October 30, 2021.
Groll, Gabriele. "Wagner im absoluten Film" in Wagnerspectrum: Wagner im Film. Konigshausen & Neumann, 2022.
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Bibliography (c) Center for Visual Music, 2006-2023. This bibliography represents selections from published works. Some texts with numerous factual errors have not been included. In general, brief online pieces and short reviews of painting exhibitions have not been included. Authors: If your work is not listed, it may not be in our library or archive. Please contact us and/or provide a copy to CVM for the Fischinger collection. Contact: cvmaccess at gmail dot com
Text and images on these pages are protected by Copyright law (Title 17 U.S. Code). Please seek permission before reproducing any of this bibliography. You may not reprint, distribute or reproduce this bibliography without the written permission of and proper credit to Center for Visual Music.
An extensive bibliography including many early German texts, to the year 2004, can be found in William Moritz's Fischinger biography Optical Poetry (2004).
Updated March 2023