S P A C E L I G H T
INDEX
Name: EMSHWILLER, Edmund A.
Aged: 65
Born: February 16, 1925
Where: Lansing, Michigan
Died: July 27, 1990
Where: Valencia, CA
Interred: Cremated
Married: Carol Fried
When: August 30, 1949
Awarded: 5 Hugo Awards for Best Artist: 1964, 1962,
1961, 1960,
and tied with Hannes Bok in 1953.
"EMSH"
Studied art at the University of Michigan (49 Bachelor's in Design), the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (49-50), and the Art Students' League in NYC (50-51). He was an abstract expressionist painter in his early career but became an award-winning science-fiction illustrator, where he was known as EMSH. Ed worked primarily as a cover artist for the pulps and was the main artist for ACE BOOK's doublebacks. Also worked as a video artist for Channel 13, WNET, NYC. Still-art remained dominant in his life thru the 60s but as the 70s approached, Ed began turning his majority attention to film and video.
Ed produced or collaborated on a number of multimedia productions at Lincoln Center, Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum, and The Los Angeles Film Festival. Ed produced the video tape Scape-mates in 1972. And by 1979, Emshwiller had produced another ground-breaking video, the three-minute 3-D computer work entitled, Sunstone, made at the New York Institute of Technology with Alvy Ray Smith. These works were displayed around the world.
Later that year, Ed accepted the position of dean at California's Institute of the Arts, film & video school. He remained there until his death and continually pushed the video envelope into new, unexplored areas.
According to Ed's wishes, his complete archives and film equipment were donated to CalArts. The archives included all of his original films, outtakes, slides, and project notes. The Ed Emshwiller Memorial Scholarship for film and video students has been initiated at CalArts in his memory.
Emshwiller had acquired a taste for a community of artists while in France but had never found such a community in the United States. The California Institute for the Arts kept him near a large and renewable resource of artistic talent and Ed was content to remain there. Readers should click here for further information.
Photo by Billy Joe Plott at 1960 Pittcon.
BIOGRAPHY: Who Was Who in America, Vol 10, p104
OBITUARY: San Francisco Examiner and N.Y. Times here.
WWII DATA: Army SN 33641932, Edmund A. Emshwiller, res Henrico county, Virginia. Enlisted Richmond, VA, on June 25, 1943. Pvt. Born 1925 in Michigan. White. 3 years of high school. Single.
