'Jordan Belson' (born 1926, Chicago, Illinois –) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
artist and filmmaker who has created nonobjective, often spiritually oriented,
abstract filmAbstract film is a subgenre of experimental film. Its history often overlaps with the concerns and history of visual music. Some of the earliest abstract motion pictures known to survive are those produced by a group of German artists working in the early 1920s, a movement referred to as "Absolute"...
s spanning six decades.
Belson studied painting at the
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley is a public research university located in Berkeley, California, United States. The oldest of the ten major campuses affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines...
. He saw the "Art in Cinema" screenings at the
San Francisco Museum of ArtThe San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum in San Francisco, California.It opened in 1935 under director Grace L. McCann Morley as the San Francisco Museum of Art, the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art. Morley was the director until 1958. George D...
beginning in 1946. The films screened at this series inspired
Harry SmithHarry Everett Smith was an American archivist, ethnomusicologist, student of anthropology, record collector, experimental filmmaker, artist, bohemian and mystic. Smith is a well-known figure in several fields...
, Belson and others to produce abstract films. Belson's first abstract film was
Transmutation (
1947The year 1947 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 22 - Great Expectations is premiered in New York.*November 24 : The United States House of Representatives of the 80th Congress voted 346 to 17 to approve citations for contempt of Congress against the "Hollywood Ten."*November 25...
).
'Jordan Belson' (born 1926, Chicago, Illinois –) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
artist and filmmaker who has created nonobjective, often spiritually oriented,
abstract filmAbstract film is a subgenre of experimental film. Its history often overlaps with the concerns and history of visual music. Some of the earliest abstract motion pictures known to survive are those produced by a group of German artists working in the early 1920s, a movement referred to as "Absolute"...
s spanning six decades.
Belson studied painting at the
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley is a public research university located in Berkeley, California, United States. The oldest of the ten major campuses affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines...
. He saw the "Art in Cinema" screenings at the
San Francisco Museum of ArtThe San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum in San Francisco, California.It opened in 1935 under director Grace L. McCann Morley as the San Francisco Museum of Art, the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art. Morley was the director until 1958. George D...
beginning in 1946. The films screened at this series inspired
Harry SmithHarry Everett Smith was an American archivist, ethnomusicologist, student of anthropology, record collector, experimental filmmaker, artist, bohemian and mystic. Smith is a well-known figure in several fields...
, Belson and others to produce abstract films. Belson's first abstract film was
Transmutation (
1947The year 1947 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 22 - Great Expectations is premiered in New York.*November 24 : The United States House of Representatives of the 80th Congress voted 346 to 17 to approve citations for contempt of Congress against the "Hollywood Ten."*November 25...
). His first films were made with his scroll paintings. Belson's work was screened later as part of the "Art in Cinema" series.
He was the recipient of a grant from the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, which later became the
GuggenheimThe Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opened its doors on October 21, 1959 and is one of the best-known museums in New York City and one of the 20th century's most important architectural landmarks...
(
Oskar FischingerOskar Fischinger was an abstract animator, filmmaker, and painter. He made over 50 short animated films, and painted c. 800 canvases, many of which are in museums, galleries and collections worldwide. Among his film works is Motion Painting No. 1 , which is now listed on the National Film Registry...
recommended him to the MoNOP curator
Hilla von RebayHildegard Anna Augusta Elizabeth Freiin Rebay von Ehrenwiesen, Baroness Hilla von Rebay, or simply Hilla Rebay , was one of the few female abstract painters in the beginning of the 20th century.Von Rebay came from a German noble family; she lived in Berlin before moving to the United States...
). Much of his work is meant to evoke a mystical or meditative experience.
In 1957 he began a collaboration with sound artist
Henry JacobsHenry Sandy Jacobs is an American sound artist and humorist.Jacobs was born in Chicago, Illinois. After a tour in the Air Corps - during which time he acquired some broadcast experience, and graduation from the University of Chicago, he moved to Mexico City...
at the Morrison Planetarium in
San Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, with a 2008 estimated population of 808,976. It is the eighth most densely populated city in the U.S. and is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the larger San...
that lasted until 1959. Together they produced a series of electronic music concerts accompanied by visual projections at the Planetarium, the Vortex Concerts. Belson as visual director programmed kinetic live visuals, and Jacobs programmed electronic music and audio experiments. This is a direct ancestor of the "Laserium©"-style shows that were popular at planetaria later in the century. These shows involved projected imagery, specially prepared film excerpts and other optical projections specifically developed for use on the hemispherical screen. Not just an opportunity to develop new visual technologies and techniques, the sound system in the planetarium enabled Belson and Jacobs to create an immersive environment where imagery could move throughout the entire screen space, and sound could move around the perimeter of the room.
Belson also created special effects for
The Right Stuff (
1983-Events:*February 11 - The Rolling Stones concert film Let's Spend the Night Together opens in New York-Top grossing films :source: http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=1983&p=.htm- Awards :Academy Awards:...
).
Belson is still making films and fine art today. His latest film "Epilogue" was commissioned for the
Visual Music exhibition at the Hirshhorn/Smithsonian, and completed in 2005. It was produced by Center for Visual Music
http://www.centerforvisualmusic.org with support from the NASA Art Program. The New York Times described it as having "lush and misty optics".
Filmography
- Transmutation (1947)
- Improvisation #1 (1948)
- Mambo (1951)
- Caravan (1952)
- Bop-Scotch (1952)
- Mandala (1953)
- Raga (1958)
- Séance (1959)
- Allures (1961)
- LSD (1962) Unfinished film. According to Belson it should not be on his filmography
- Re-entry (1964)
- Phenomena (1965)
- Samadhi (1967)
- Momentum (1968)
- Cosmos (1969)
- World (1970)
- Meditation (1971)
- Chakra (1972)
- Light (1973)
- Cycles (1975) made with Stephen Beck
- Music of the Spheres (1977)
- Infinity (1980)
- Quartet (1982)
- Fountain of Dreams (1984)
- Northern Lights (1985)
- Mysterious Journey (1997)
- Bardo (2001)
- Epilogue (2005)
External links