<html> <A NAME=TOP> <head> <title>Van De Bogart & Sch&ouml;ffer 1975 & 1988</title> </head> <body background="paris/sigle2.gif"> <P> <center><h1>Nicolas Sch&ouml;ffer</a>, Cybernetic Sculptor, Paris, France. 1912-1992</h1></center> <hr><p> <center><a href="paris/schoffer6.jpg"><IMG SRC="paris/schoffer6.gif"border=0></a></center> <center>Click on image for larger view</center><p> <blockquote>Born on September 6th 1912 in Kalocsa (Hungary), lived in Paris since 1936, became French in 1948 and died in his Montmartre atelier, Villa des Arts, on the 8th of January 1992. Studied at the Jesuit College of Kalocsa ; Doctorate of Law ; Graduate of the School of Fine Arts in Budapest (Hungary).<br> After further studies at the Ecole Nationale SupŽrieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris (Atelier SabattŽ) he developped a very personal style of work.<br> He is the father of Cybernetic Art (1954) and Video Art (1961)<p> He was married to Eleonore de Lavandeyra.</blockquote><p> <hr> Return to:| <a href="willard.html">The Portal Messenger - Willard Van De Bogart</a> | <A HREF="http://www.earthportals.com/index.html">Home</a> | <A HREF="http://www.earthportals.com/control.html">Earth Portal Controls</A> | <p> <a href="paris/schoffer3.jpg"><IMG SRC="paris/smschoffer3.gif"align="left"border=0></a>Click on image for larger view.<p>In the Spring of 1974 the New York Times ran a story on an artist in Paris who was going to build a tower 153 meters higher than the Eiffel Tower. That artist was Nicholas Sch&ouml;ffer. The name of the tower was: Tour Lumiere Cybernetique of Paris-la-Defense.<p> At the time of reading this news I was teaching Media Ecology at Jersey City State College. The department was headed by Frank Micelli, and Dr. Raymond Arlo. I was fascinated how media effected culture and society so my immediate impulse was to write a letter to Nicolas, which I did, and when he responded I was very excited. He invited me to Paris, and on July 6, 1974 I flew to Paris and ended up working in Sch&ouml;ffer's architectural offices headed by Andr&eacute; Devellet. It was in this architectural firm I was given the responsibilty to re-draw the blue prints for the Tour Lumiere Cybernetique, as well as build and refine the maquette.<p><a href="paris/schoffer2.jpg"><IMG SRC="paris/blueprint.gif"align="right"border=0></a><p> The President of Paris, at the time, was George Pompidou. When Pompidou died the project to erect the tower in la Defense, East of Paris along the Champs Ellysse halted, and I returned to the United States on June 17, 1975. That year was a remarkable year to study with Nicolas Schoffer. It led to my completing and exhibiting a laser sculpture at the American Cultural Center celebrating the 200th anniversary of the United States titled: "Infinite Vision", during May and June of 1975. Don Forrester was the Director at the time, and the influences from my time with Nicolas Sch&ouml;ffer could definitely be seen.<p> The vision and the scope of Nicolas Sch&ouml;ffer is unequaled by any artist to this date. His vision and his imagination soared well beyond where most people can go with their minds. Here is an excerpt from Sch&ouml;ffer's article: Sonic and Visual Structures: Theory and Experiment published in Leonardo, Vol. 18, No. 2,pp.59-68, 1985.<p> <b>The Explosion of Ideas</b> - p.63<br> <blockquote> Among the many varied explosions which characterize our time, I see demography, technology, production and consumption as the main ones. But the most important, concerning all of them, is probably the explosion of quality joined to the quality of quantity. The growth od demography, technology, production and consumption in quantity has allowed the number of elements of quality to grow in quantity. This leads to growth in the quantity of the quality itself. Yet, these four explosions charactewristic of contemporary life are practically insignificant compared to the explosion of ideas, particularly in the fields of artistic creation, philosophy, sociology and the theoretical sciences. These ideas are exploding even though their effects are not always immediately perceived. Their diffusion varies according to the opportunities afforded them by the era, and very frequently they emerge abruptly or progressively after long periods of incubation. Be that as it may, the finality of true creation is found first in itself and not in its ultimate "socialization", or popularization. The 'Cybernetic Light Tower of la-Defense (Paris) is a non-realized project but, thanks to information of all kinds, it already belongs to the memorized and probably archetypalized repertory of the significant works in the domain of the plastic arts.</blockquote><p> And again Sch&ouml;ffer provides some very fruitful thoughts...<p> <b>Creator-Sower</b> - p.63<p> <blockquote> Sowing the seed is a necessary precondition to subsequent harvesting. The true creator is a seed-sower. The soil is not always sufficiently fertile for the crop to come forth, but the role of the sower is not to prepare nor to enrich the field. That is the role of education and mass media.<p> A fertile and fertilizing idea is a dense and solid concentration of idea-parameters rigourously dosed out and structured through a combinatory process broadly opened out for the blossoming of a multitude of information. The more simple and rigorous the basic parameters, the more diverse, varied and rich are the combinations which offer infinite information. </blockquote><p> <b>Update for Nicolas Sch&ouml;ffer</b><p> A 50 year anniversay of all of Sch&ouml;ffer's work opened with an exhibition titled "Ballets de Lumieres" at Espace EDF Electra museum, on 6 rue Recamier which ran from May 17 - Sept. 11, 2005<p> It was the first time in 30 years, Parisians had the chance to enter the magical world of light created by all Sch&ouml;ffers sculptures.<p> <center><IMG SRC="paris/lux13.jpg"></center> <center> Lux13 - Cybernetic sculpture by Sch&ouml;ffer</center><p> Related Link: Picture Gallery of work by Nicolas Schoffer with Willard Van De Bogart

<hr><p> <center><a href="infinitevision.html"><IMG SRC="paris/willardlaser75.jpg"border=0></a></center><p> <center><font size=2>Click on image to see Infinite Vision Laser Show</font></center><p> In May of 1975 I received a grant from the United States Embassy through the American Cultural Center in Paris, France to construct a laser sculpture commemorating the 200th anniversay of the United States. Through the assistance of Don Forrester, then director of the Center, and Nancy Shamroth, I was able to execute a piece which was originally sketched during my laser studio work at the California Institue of the Arts in 1971. A photographic documentation, and write up in French is available by clicking on the above image.<p> <hr> Return to:| |<a href=#"top">Top</a> | <a href="willard.html">The Portal Messenger - Willard Van De Bogart</a> | <A HREF="http://ww.earthportals.com/index.html" target="_blank">Home</A> | <P> <center><a href="mailto:willard@portalmarket.com"><center>willard@portalmarket.com</center></a></center> <center>&copy;1995-2002 Earth Portals</center><p> </body> </html>