Jordan Belson
Image: Belson drawings at Eugene Binder / Kendra Jones
While he was best known for making films, Belson also created a significant body of two-dimensional works throughout the later half of the twentieth century. These paintings, drawings, and objects reflect his consuming interest in sacred art, cosmology, and his lifelong engagement with eastern philosophies.
Working at the Morrison Planetarium in San Francisco from 1957 to 1959, Belson created flowing, pulsing visual experiences that dissolved the boundary between inner and outer space. His films like Allures and Phenomena used interference patterns, optical effects, and kaleidoscope projectors to generate imagery that felt simultaneously microscopic and galactic. His dome projections prefigured 360-degree visual environments.
It was a pleasure to see these drawings at Eugene Binder: the first ever solo exhibition of his visual art works.
Cindy Keefer on Jordan Belson, Cosmic Cinema, and the San Francisco Museum of Art:
In 1953 Belson attended Fischinger’s performance of his Lumigraph (a mechanical color-light performance instrument) at the museum. The Lumigraph was performed in pitch darkness, and Fischinger created what he called “fantastic color plays” with spontaneous movements of colored light dancing to accompanying music. Belson was struck by the simple elegance and the mysterious soft, glowing images. Similarly, Belson later saw one of Thomas Wilfred’s Lumia color-light machines exhibited at SFMA, which became an influence on his later work.
A few years after Art in Cinema, Belson and Henry Jacobs created the legendary Vortex Concerts.
In May 1957 the first Vortex Concert was held at the California Academy of Science’s Morrison Planetarium. Featuring new electronic music from avant-garde composers worldwide curated by composer and DJ Henry Jacobs, Vortex was described by Belson (as visual director) as “a series of electronic music concerts illuminated by various visual effects.” In the blackness of the planetarium’s 65-foot dome, Belson created spectacular illusions, layering abstract patterns, lighting effects, and cosmic imagery, at times using up to 30 projection devices.
Infinity - Jordan Belson. 1980
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September 5, 2025References
Keefer, Cindy. 'Jordan Belson, Cosmic Cinema, and the San Francisco Museum of Art'. Open Space (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), 12 October 2010. https://openspace.sfmoma.org/2010/10/jordan-belson/. [archived]
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