Unit #167, from the Clavilux Home Instrument (First Home Lumia Instrument) Series

1930

Thomas Wilfred

(American, born Denmark, 1889–1968)

Culture

America

Medium

mixed media

Measurements

Overall: 85 x 55.8 x 39.6 cm (33 7/16 x 21 15/16 x 15 9/16 in.)
Weight: Main body with 2 discs inside: 30.2 kg, one disc: approx. 0.16 kg, 3 reflectors: 0.04 kg

Credit Line

Gift of the Artist 2000.129

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

A curator of education bought this object in 1954 with the intention of making it a gift of the artist, but apparently the museum was perplexed over its status as a work of art, and did not formally add it into the collection until 2000.

Description

Thomas Wilfred was a pioneer in using light as a primary artistic medium, and he coined the term lumia to describe his new art form. This early example is a cabinet with an interior mechanism incorporating a lightbulb, motor, hand-painted glass disc, and reflective surfaces, all of which operate in unison to project abstract images in motion and color against a screen. The viewer can turn exterior knobs to manipulate these projected compositions. The artist named this device a Clavilux, after a Latin word meaning “light played by key.”