Wilshire Center

The pioneering abstract animated films of Oskar Fischinger (1900-1967) have overshadowed his paintings but his work in both media reflects a single aesthetic vision.

Early, formal arrangements of geometric shapes like “Spheres” (1941), a cluster of circles in muted primary colors, display strong affinities with the celebrated film, “An Optical Poem” (1937). Screening the film on a nearby monitor produces an interesting tension: The static images in the painting seem to cry out for motion, while the viewer longs to stop the videotape and leisurely contemplate each of the moving pictures.

In later paintings, geometric solids give way to sensual, organic forms, reminiscent of Kandinsky. “Resonance” (1959) and the more angular “Linear Abstraction” (1951) evoke the Eastern mysticism Fischinger pursued in his last completed film, “Motion Painting 1” (1947), a mystic vision reflected in his use of a stylized Buddhist prayer wheel in place of a signature. (Tobey C. Moss Gallery, 7321 Beverly Blvd., to Oct. 18.)