Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 4: Digital Era (1960s)

1963

Thomas Wilfred, Lumia Suite, Opus 158

Artwork

Thomas Wilfred with Lumia Suite, Opus 158, the light composition MoMA commissioned in 1963 and kept on almost continuous view until it was dismantled after 1980.
Thomas Wilfred with Lumia Suite, Opus 158, the light composition MoMA commissioned in 1963 and kept on almost continuous view until it was dismantled after 1980. Thomas Wilfred with Lumia Suite, Opus 158. Yale University Library, Manuscripts and Archives. Reproduced in Carol Snow and Lynda Zycherman, “Conserving Thomas Wilfred's Lumia Suite, Opus 158,” in Keep It Moving? Conserving Kinetic Art, Getty Conservation Institute, 2018.

Commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art, this piece went on view at the museum’s 1964 reopening and stayed on display until 1981 before being disassembled. It was created by kinetic light artist Thomas Wilfred who pioneered the “lumia” art form in the 1920s. The extremely complex work was created on a device consisting of metal, fans, electric motors and light.

Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.

Sources

People

Thomas Wilfred

Movements

kinetic art, Lumino-Kinetic Art

Filed under

Ideas
light art, lumia, Lumino-Kinetic Art
Technologies
kinetic art
People
Thomas Wilfred
Works
Lumia Suite
Organisations
MoMA
Places
New York, United States

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