How’d He Do That? A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Lumia

A study of light with green, orange, red, an yellow tones.

Thomas Wilfred, Lumia Suite, Op. 158, 1963–64. Projectors, reflector unit, electrical and lighting elements, and a projection screen; approx. 9 yrs., 127 days, 18 hrs. Museum of Modern Art, New York, Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund, 582.1964. Photo: Courtesy Yale University Art Gallery 

Scott
December 28, 2017

 

Scott Rosenfeld is a Lighting Designer at the museum. This post is part of an occasional series where SAAM experts take you behind-the-scenes as they investigate a work of art.

The exhibition, Lumia: Thomas Wilfred and the Art of Light, gives visitors a rare look at the artworks created by Thomas Wilfred that use light as their medium. I was fortunate to work with Eugene and A.J. Epstein, passionate collectors of Lumia, during the installation period to learn how Wilfred choreographed these dazzling displays of colored light. I was particularly impressed with Wilfred’s signature artist mark: the projection of a lightbulb’s filament. I decided to see what I could uncover, and am excited to share this short video that demonstrates what is happening behind Wilfred's magical and mysterious Lumia screens.

 

Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
Duration 0:00
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time 0:00
 
1x
    • Chapters
    • descriptions off, selected
    • captions off, selected

      Lighting Designer, Scott Rosenfeld, takes you behind the scenes of Lumia: Thomas Wilfred and the Art of Light.

      More Videos

      Our America Audio Podcast - Elizabeth Broun, "Mis Hermanos" by Jesse Trevino

      This audio podcast series discusses artworks and themes in the exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

      Our America Audio Podcast - Elizabeth Broun, works by Margarita Cabrera

      This audio podcast series discusses artworks and themes in the exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

      Our America Audio Podcast - works by Freddy Rodriguez

      This audio podcast series discusses artworks and themes in the exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

      Our America Audio Podcast - Amado M. Pena Jr., "Mestizo"

      This audio podcast series discusses artworks and themes in the exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In this episode, artist Amado M.

       

      Your last chance to see Wilfred’s work in person is January 7, 2018, when the exhibition must close!

      Categories

      Recent Posts

      Five screen video installation.
      Sir Isaac Julien’s moving image installation "Lessons of the Hour" interweaves period reenactments across five screens to create a vivid picture of nineteenth-century activist, writer, orator, and philosopher Frederick Douglass.
      This is a photograph of curator Saisha Grayson
      Saisha Grayson
      Curator of Time-Based Media
      Two visitors looking at an abstract painting. There are artworks around them.
      01/09/2025
      A poet's trip to a museum is eye-opening in unexpected ways
      A white painting depicting a snowy landscape with houses on a distant hill.
      12/27/2024
      Artists have been capturing all the different moods of light for millennia. American artists such as members of the Hudson River School, or the American impressionists, managed to capture light as a way of defining the landscape.