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

[Emile Tobenfeld (a.k.a Dr. T)]

He was one of the artists who inspired me to take up  photo collage, 
visual improvisation. film and, later, video.

At 11:53 AM -0700 9/7/11, C Keefer wrote:
>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.

Wish I had seen those,. but the 15 year old, chess and bridge playing 
Emile probably wouldn't have appreciated them,

>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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-- 
"I rang a silent bell ..."  -- Robert Hunter
"... cast your dancing spell my way, I promise to go under it" -- Bob Dylan

My photography can be viewed at 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22231918@N06/collections/72157603627170351/

My videos can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/Tobenfeld