RHYTHM IN LIGHT
MARY ELLEN BUTE
•
4m 46s
A pictorial accompaniment in abstract forms, RHYTHM IN LIGHT is a pioneer effort in a new (circa mid-1930s) art form. It is a modern artist's impression of what goes on in the mind while listening to music.
Mary Ellen Bute used Melville Webber's experience with making cardboard models and with photographing in soft-focus and through prisms to produce multiple refractions and reflections. In addition, she used cellophane, ping-pong balls, sparklers, eggbeaters and bracelets to create a work that, while pushing toward abstraction, does not completely leave the objective world behind. — R. Bruce Elder
[Featuring an excerpt from the suite of PEER GYNT by Edvard Grieg.]
Up Next in MARY ELLEN BUTE
-
SPOOK SPORT
Animated by Norman McLaren, using his adroit ink-on-film technique, Mary Ellen Bute's film visualizes Camille Saint-Saëns' DANSE MACABRE. It features colored globes, ellipses and triangles that move ghost-like over monochromatic backgrounds, communicating the notion of spirits rising from a grave...
-
SYNCHROMY NO.2
Seeing sound. Music, in addition to pleasing the ear, brings something to the eye. SYNCHROMY NO.2 was designed by a modern (circa-1930s) artist to create moods through the eye as music creates moods through the ear. A pictorial accompaniment in abstract forms to the music of THE EVENING STAR (fro...
-
TARENTELLA
By 1940, Mary Ellen Bute's abstractions were shown at select theaters nationwide. Utilizing initial illustrations created by Norman McLaren for her earlier SPOOK SPORT, this "seeing-sound" film demonstrates her ability to visualize music in a style sympathetic to modernist painting. Squiggling li...