Thanatopsis

Ed Emshwiller (February 16, 1925-July 27, 1990) was a visual artist notable for illustrations of many science fiction magazine covers and for his pioneering experimental films. He usually signed his illustrations as Emsh but sometimes used the signatures Ed Emsh and Emsler.

Born in Lansing, Michigan, he graduated from the University of Michigan in 1947, and then studied at École des Beaux Arts (1949-1950) in Paris with his wife, writer Carol Emshwiller (née Fries), whom he married on August 30, 1949. He also studied at the Art Students League of New York (1950-51).

Between 1951 and 1979, Emshwiller created covers and interior illustrations for dozens of science fiction paperbacks and magazines, notably Galaxy and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. During this time he won five Hugo Awards for Best Artist: 1953 (tied with Hannes Bok), 1960, 1961, 1962 and 1964. There is no “typical” Emsh cover. His painterly treatment for the August 1951 Galaxy prefigures later work by Leo and Diane Dillon.

Film and video

Emshwiller’s footage of Bob Dylan singing “Only a Pawn in Their Game” on July 6, 1963 at a Voters’ Registration Rally in Greenwood, Mississippi, was shot for his 1963 documentary The Streets of Greenwood and appears in D. A. Pennebaker’s film of Dylan, Dont Look Back.

In 1964, a Ford Foundation grant allowed Emshwiller to pursue his interest in film. Active in the New American Cinema movement of the 1960s and early 1970s, he created multimedia performance pieces and did cine-dance and experimental films, while also working as a cinematographer on low-budget features and documentaries.

His films of the 1960s were mostly shot in 16mm color, and some of these included double exposures created simply by rewinding the cameras. Beginning with Scape-Mates (1972) he shifted to experiments in video, combining computer animation with live-action. In 1979, he produced Sunstone, a ground-breaking three-minute 3-D computer-generated movie made at the New York Institute of Technology with Alvy Ray Smith.

CalArts

After a period as artist-in-residence at the Television Laboratory WNET/13 (New York), he moved to California and served as dean of the School of Film/Video at the California Institute of Arts from 1979 to 1990. He also served as provost from 1981 through 1986. In 1987, he created his electronic video opera, Hunger, for the 1987 Los Angeles Arts Festival, in partnership with composer Morton Subotnick. It was his last completed work, also presented in October 1989 at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria.

Archives and awards

Emshwiller died of cancer on July 27, 1990, in Valencia, California, where he was cremated. His papers are archived at the California Institute of Arts. On June 16, 2007, Emshwiller was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in Seattle. —Wikipedia