[Frameworks] R.I.P. Jordan Belson (1926-2011)

[Mark Toscano]

Jeeezus, George AND Jordan on the same day?!  A very sad day.  An unlikely pair of filmmakers to consider together, but they were both absolute geniuses, two of the very greatest, in their respective areas.

Unbelievable.

Mark T



--- On Wed, 9/7/11, C Keefer <keefco at earthlink.net> wrote:

> From: C Keefer <keefco at earthlink.net>
> Subject: [Frameworks] R.I.P. Jordan Belson (1926-2011)
> To: visualmusicplus at yahoogroups.com, frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com
> Date: Wednesday, September 7, 2011, 11:53 AM
> 
> We are sad to report that filmmaker/artist Jordan Belson
> died early Tuesday morning, September 6, at his home in San
> Francisco, of heart failure. He was 85. A memorial screening
> is planned for the near future in the San Francisco Bay
> Area, plus tribute screenings in several other cities.
> Details will follow soon. 
> 
> Jordan Belson created abstract films richly woven with
> cosmological imagery, exploring consciousness,
> transcendence, and the nature of light itself.
> 
> Born in Chicago in 1926, Belson studied painting at the
> California School of Fine Art (now San Francisco Art
> Institute), and received his B.A., Fine Arts (1946) from The
> University of California, Berkeley. He saw films by Oskar
> Fischinger, Norman McLaren and Hans Richter at the historic
> Art in Cinema screening series in San Francisco in the late
> 1940s. Belson was inspired to make films with scroll
> paintings and traditional animation techniques, calling his
> first films "cinematic paintings."
> 
> Curator Hilla Rebay at The Museum of Non-Objective
> Painting, New York, exhibited his paintings, and upon
> Fischinger's recommendation awarded Belson several grants.
> From 1957-1959, Belson was Visual Director for The Vortex
> Concerts at San Francisco's Morrison Planetarium, a series
> of electronic music concerts accompanied by visual
> projections. Composer Henry Jacobs curated the music while
> Belson created visual illusions with multiple projection
> devices, combining planetarium effects with patterns and
> abstract film footage. His Vortex work inspired his
> abandoning traditional animation methods to work with real
> time projected light. He completed Allures (1961), Re-entry
> (1964), Phenomena (1965), Samadhi (1967), and continued with
> a series of abstract films. His varied influences include
> yoga, Eastern philosophies and mysticism, astronomy,
> Romantic classical music, alchemy, Jung, non-objective art,
> mandalas and many more.
> 
> Belson produced an extraordinary body of over 30 abstract
> films, sometimes called "cosmic cinema."  He produced
> ethereal special effects for the film The Right Stuff
> (1983). His last completed film was Epilogue (2005),
> commissioned by The Hirshhorn Museum. He is survived by his
> long time partner, Catherine Heinrich. (Revised bio by C.
> Keefer, for Guggenheim Museum's "The Third Mind" catalog,
> 2008.)
> 
> More information about Belson and his work can be found on
> his approved research pages, at
> www.centerforvisualmusic.org/Belson
> 
> Earlier in 2011, Belson wrote a statement asking people not
> to put his films online, as it did not do justice to his
> work.
> 
> In lieu of flowers, Belson's partner Ms. Heinrich requests
> that donations be made to Center for Visual Music's
> preservation and digitization work to continue preserving
> the legacy of Jordan Belson. Contact cvmarchive (at)
> gmail.com
> 
> 
> posted by:
> Cindy Keefer
> Center for Visual Music
> Los Angeles, CA
> 213-683-1514
> cvmaccess (at) gmail.com
> www.centerforvisualmusic.org
> 
> 
> 
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