Reflektorische Farblichtspiele (1922/66) by Kurt Schwerdtfeger

Schwerdtfeger was born in 1897 in Deutsch Puddiger, now Poland. After fighting in World War I he studied philosophy and art history. From 1920 to 1924 he taught at the Bauhaus in Weimar. "Reflektorische Farblichtspiele" (translated as "Reflecting Color-Light-Play") premiered in 1922 at the home of Vassily Kandinsky. It was not documented until 1966, just before the artist's death.

The performers control a bank of coloured lights with a switchboard, while manipulating cardboard shapes. The resulting light-play can be seen to anticipate both expanded cinema and the psychedelic light shows of the late 1960s, though it has a formal grace not often encountered in those activities.