Study for Lumia Suite, Opus #158
1964 · Pencil on blueprint
32 1/4 x 31 3/8" (81.8 x 79.5 cm)
Museum of Modern Art
WATTS INDEXThe canonical database of visual culture
Thomas Wilfred
Artist
WA-00030070
PaintingAbstract ArtPerformance ArtKinetic Art
Representation
None documented
7
Institutional Exhibitions
7
Works in Collection
14
Assets Indexed
1
Authority-backed Facts
0
Publications Referenced
90%
Profile Completeness
Cultural Positioning
Influence Graph
No influence edges encoded yet.
Authority Records (3)
Selected Institutional Exhibitions
View all exhibitions →No image
Drawn in America
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1972
No image
Thomas Wilfred: Lumia
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1971
No image
Wilfred: Lumia Suite, Op 158
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1964
No image
Recent Acquisitions
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1961–1962
No image
Photographs from the Museum Collection
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1958–1959
No image
15 Americans
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1952
No image
New Acquisitions and Extended Loans: Cubist and Abstract Art
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1942
Field Verification (1 fields)
1 cross-verified · 0 single-source
- BiographyMoMA· 93%✓
Source Registry (1)
- MoMA bulk 2026-05-04Tier 1 · Institutional92%
About
Why this artist matters now
Thomas Wilfred was an American artist who invented the Clavilux, an early light-based instrument designed to produce abstract visual compositions in real time. Working from the 1920s onward, he created performative light installations that treated color and luminosity as a malleable medium akin to music. His work anticipated kinetic art and video installation by several decades, establishing light itself as a sculptural and temporal material. Wilfred conceived of his performances as an immersive visual language independent of narrative or representation.
Source: Moma Bulk 2026 05 04 · Trust score: 92% · Updated 29d ago
Graph relationships
Taste overlap and adjacency
Movement
Abstract Art
Medium
Painting
Related Artists
12 in graph
Institutional
Museum Collections
Canonical record
Artworks (7)
Artwork sources (3)
7 published of 12 catalogued · 6 with image
- MoMA5 publishedof 10 catalogued6 img
- Cleveland Museum of Art1 published
- The Met1 published
Per-Artwork Provenance Chains (top 1)
1 entries · 1 sources
- 1930 · Cleveland · 1 provUrl Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number
Record
Images
Relationships
6Institutional
Representation & Collections
In collection
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
In collection
Cleveland Museum of Art
In collection
Museum of Modern Art
New York, US
Record