Alfons Schilling

* 1934, Switzerland

Alfons Schilling (1934−2013)
Born in Basel in 1934, from 1956 enrolled at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, master class with Eduard Bäumer. Left the university in 1959. Travelled to Mallorca with Günter Brus in 1960; abandoned academic study and experimented with action painting. First exhibitions in 1961 with Brus at Galerie Junge Generation, Vienna. Five month visit to Paris in 1962, intensification of involvement with rotating pictures, painting on motor-driven rotating circular surfaces.

Moved to New York in autumn 1962. Intensive study of holography and stereoscopy, work with lenticular photography. Begining of friendship and cooperation with Steina and Woody Vasulka in 1967. In 1968 lenticular photos of demonstrations in Chicago and first group exhibition in the USA in Richard Feigen Gallery, Chicago. In the 1970s/1980s development of autobinary 3-D pictures and portable Seemaschinen (vision machines); lectures at various art institutions, performances and exhibitions in the USA and Europe.

Return to Vienna in 1986; until 1990 visiting professor at the University of Applied Arts. In 1987 solo exhibition Optic Machines at the MAK, Vienna. In 1997 retrospective Ich/Auge/Welt − The Art of Vision at Kunsthalle Krems. Solo exhibition at the MAK in the Artists in Focus series in 2007. Major exhibition at Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg in 2009. Died in Vienna 2013.

FILMOGRAPHY

Films and cinematographic experiments by Alfons Schilling (selection)

1965
9XL-Once upon a time, 35 mm, b/w, sound, 13 min.

1966
9 evenings: theatre & engineering, 16 mm, b/w, sound, 20 min
documentation of „9 evenings“, experiments in art and technology (EAT), October 1966, New York

1968
o.T. (Woody Vašulka & Alfons Schilling with rotating camera), 8mm, colour, silent, 3:44 min

1970
Catch-up Race, 16mm, colour, silent, 2:50 min

Jackie Curtis, 16mm, b/w, silent, 1:10 min

BB nude with machine, 16mm, colour, silent, 1:56 min

Woody and me, Video, b/w, sound, 45 min

1977
Zeitraum (Space of Time), 16 mm, colour, sound, 6:48 min (camera: Andrej Zdravic).

64 paintings, 16 mm, colour, silent, 1 min

collaboration

1966
editing of Birth of the flag, film by Claes Oldenburg, 16 mm, b/w, 30 min

1967
camera for Snows, Performance by Carolee Schneemann at the Martinique theater, New York, 16 mm, b/w, 24 min


films about Alfons Schilling

1962
Desperate Motion / Cosmos Action Painting, 8 mm, b/w, 11:30 min, film by Niklaus Schilling

1976
Alfons Schilling, 16 mm, colour, sound, 7 min, film by G. Radanowicz and S. Schroeder

1984
Natural Selection, 16 mm, colour, sound, 35 min, film by Larry Gottheim

1986
Between 4 eyes - Alfons Schilling seen by Niklaus Schilling, video, colour, sound, 44 min film by Niklaus Schilling