1. Thomas Wilfred is best known for his art of light, which he named lumia, and his designs for color organs called Clavilux.
15 Facts About Thomas Wilfred
1. 2.
Thomas Wilfred's father ran a photography studio, and young Thomas Wilfred was exposed to the arts at a young age.
3.
Thomas Wilfred studied painting and poetry in Paris, and found early success as "Wilfred the Lute Player" traveling Europe and America performing minstrel songs on the archaic lute.
4.
Around 1905, Thomas Wilfred began to experiment with bits of colored glass and light sources.
5.
Thomas Wilfred coined the term "lumia" to describe "an eighth art" where light would stand on its own as an expressive art-form.
6.
Thomas Wilfred was passionate that lumia should be a silent art.
7.
Thomas Wilfred's mechanisms were often complex designs that have been described as from the "Rube Goldberg school".
8.
Thomas Wilfred was a trained artist, but had little mechanical schooling.
9.
In 1919, Thomas Wilfred constructed the Clavilux Model A in his Long Island studio.
10.
Thomas Wilfred founded the Art Institute of Light, which had a recital hall in Chelsea, and then later at the Grand Central Palace.
11.
World War II found the Grand Central Palace theatre turned into an Army induction center, and Thomas Wilfred did his part for the Allies by serving as a translator.
12.
Thomas Wilfred was an early pioneer in working with projected scenery for the theatre.
13.
Thomas Wilfred's initial success in this was a 1930 Broadway production of Ibsen's The Vikings.
14.
Thomas Wilfred did seminal work in the 1950s with the University of Washington's John Ashby Conway in this field.
15.
At this point in his career, Thomas Wilfred shifted from a musical to a painting-based analogy for lumia in an attempt to explain it to the broader public.