Frank Malina (1912-1981) - Kinetic Multiple 982 (NASA)

Frank J. Malina: Kinetic Multiple ("982 IV")

Silkscreen on card, hand-signed, titled and dated. Sheet 28 × 25 cm. Published by Edition Panderma, Basel.

A multiple by Frank J. Malina, one of the pioneers of lumino-kinetic art. On a deep black ground, a single diagonal axis is set with a rhythmic, dashed sequence of white and red marks — a reduced notation of movement, interval and trajectory that echoes the language of Malina's kinetic paintings, in which line, point and light trace the motion of stars, particles and waves. Where his major works animate these structures with real light and electric motion (the "Lumidyne" system he invented), the present multiple distils the same sensibility into a spare, graphic image of a path in space.

Frank J. Malina (Brenham, Texas 1912 – Boulogne-Billancourt 1981) was an American artist-engineer of Czech descent who united science and art to an exceptional degree. A co-founder and director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena and a pioneer of American rocketry, he left the United States for Paris in 1947. From the early 1950s he devoted himself fully to kinetic art, becoming one of the founding figures of lumino-kinetic art in Europe; he invented the electromechanical "Lumidyne" system and produced more than 250 kinetic works, exhibited across Europe. In 1968 he founded Leonardo, the influential international journal dedicated to the dialogue between the arts, sciences and technology, which continues to this day. His work is held in collections including the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, which acquired one of his early works in 1954.

La Lune en Rodage is the collective portfolio series assembled by the Basel-based publisher, psychoanalyst and collector Carl Laszlo (Pécs 1923 – Basel 2013), issued by Edition Panderma, Basel. Laszlo gathered leading artists of his time, several of whose contributions mark turning points in their careers — Enrico Castellani's sheet being his first documented graphic work, and Piero Manzoni's Achrome the only multiple the artist ever produced.

Condition: some marks to the paper and minor spotting to the reverse due to age (see photographs).

Provenance: Edition Panderma, Carl Laszlo, Basel — Private Collection, Basel.