Dream Dance: The Art of Ed Emshwiller

Lightbox Film Center at International House Philadelphia will present Dream Dance: The Art of Ed Emshwiller, the first major monographic exhibition of the artist’s groundbreaking work in film, video, and visual art. Primarily known as a filmmaker, Emshwiller’s (1925–90) career spanned abstract expressionist painting, commercial illustration, video and computer art, and collaborations with dancers, choreographers, and composers. Dream Dance seeks to recognize the artist’s legacy and introduce his multidisciplinary oeuvre to a new generation of audiences. The project includes the preservation of two of Emshwiller’s earliest films, Dance Chromatic (1959) and Lifelines (1960), which will be screened at Lightbox along with 17 of his other films—some of which have never been publicly presented—as well as notable films by other luminaries for which he served as cinematographer, and several collaborative works he made with his children. A gallery exhibition will highlight Emshwiller’s visual and fine art background, displaying video works, early paintings, notes, sketches, ephemera, and many early science fiction cover illustrations. Scholars, historians, and Emshwiller’s family members and contemporaries will contextualize his work and provide new scholarship in an accompanying catalog.

Additional unrestricted funds are added to each grant for general operating support.