Frank MALINA (1912-1981)

"Sea Stars", Kinetic Painting, 3-D stator Lumidyne system, 1966 Kinetic nesting. Signed and titled on the back and numbered 1031/1966. 122 x 84 x 13 cm The box has not been opened and the mechanism has not been checked. A priori, the mechanism is in good working order. The object has remained in the same family since its acquisition from the artist. A rare combination of scientist, artist, publisher and humanist, Franck Malina had an extremely singular life: a brilliant aeronautical engineer, he developed rockets and their propulsion system as early as 1935. With his Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a project now attached to NASA, he launched the first rocket to reach an altitude of 50 miles. He left the space world in 1947, in disagreement with its increasingly military orientation. In 1953, he moved to Paris and his naturally inventive temperament led him to artistic creation. He directed his research towards the expression of real movement using electric light. "In 1956 they invented the lumydine system, À table also the label closed by a screen on which a coloured composition is animated by slow movements produced by an electro-mechanism hidden in the painting. The abstract and figurative motifs often refer to the world of science and astronomy. Placed in a state of relaxation caused by the play of light, the viewer is thus incited to meditate on the subjects proposed by the play of lights. In the tradition of the music of colours, Malina's work invites us to consider the marriage between art, technology and science, to wonder about the place of man in nature in the age of space conquest, but also to stimulate the cerebral regions of creative activity. (Fabrice Lapelletrie). During his numerous exhibitions, international museums acquired works by the artist: Musée national d'Art moderne Paris; C.N.A.C. Paris; Krefeld, Germany; Smithsonian Institute, Washington; Palais des Arts et de la Science, San Francisco.