The Story Behind Synchromy No. 4: Escape and Marc Brickman's Tribute to Mary Ellen Bute
Some art starts on a canvas. Other art starts in motion — with light, sound, and time all working on you at once. Synchromy No. 4: Escape belongs to that second category. Mary Ellen Bute made the short abstract film in 1937–38, chasing an idea that was genuinely radical for the time: light could move like music, and abstract shapes on screen could carry the same rhythm and emotional weight as a song. Decades later, that idea resurfaced in an unlikely place — a Marc Brickman lighting display on one of New York's most recognizable buildings, and eventually, a collectible print.
Mary Ellen Bute and the Idea of "Visual Music"
Mary Ellen Bute was one of the true pioneers of visual music and experimental film. She worked well outside the Hollywood system, making abstract films that treated color, shape, movement, and light as if they were notes in a musical score. The goal wasn't to tell a story in the usual sense — it was to give visual art the same sense of sequence and build that music has.
Synchromy No. 4: Escape turned that abstraction into something surprisingly emotional. The Whitney Museum calls it a "visual symphony" in which an animated orange triangle struggles to escape a patterned prison. Over four minutes, color and sound move through shifting geometric environments, building tension and release without a single character or line of dialogue.
That's exactly what makes the film so relevant to Brickman's tribute. Bute spent her career asking how light and movement could function as a language of their own. Brickman has spent his asking a related question: how do you turn architecture, live performance, and public space into something people actually feel, not just look at?
When the Empire State Building Became a Canvas
On May 1, 2015, those two questions collided in one of the more striking one-night events New York has seen. The Whitney Museum partnered with the Empire State Building to mark two things at once: the opening of the Whitney's new downtown location, and the building's eighty-fourth anniversary.
Brickman was chosen to reinterpret twelve works from the Whitney's collection using the building's LED tower lights. From 8 PM to 2 AM, each piece got its own thirty-minute light sequence, turning the entire skyscraper into a single, moving artwork visible across the city. Bute's Synchromy No. 4: Escape was one of the twelve.
For Brickman, this wasn't a matter of picking colors that looked good against the skyline. Bute's original film ran on rhythm, abstraction, and a strong sense of movement — qualities that don't automatically translate to a 1,454-foot building. He had to take a 1930s experimental film, built frame by frame on a small screen, and rebuild its logic at architectural scale. What started as cinema became light moving across an entire skyline.
From a One-Night Show to a Collectible Print
The original display lasted a single night. What it left behind didn't disappear when the lights changed — Brickman's interpretation now exists as a still artwork, and it's part of the ESB x Whitney Collaboration, a full collection built around his visual takes on the twelve pieces featured that night.
This particular print connects three separate moments in art history: Bute's experimental filmmaking in the 1930s, the Whitney's downtown opening in 2015, and Brickman's own translation of that history into contemporary light art. It's not just an abstract geometric print for a wall — it's a record of an idea that traveled across nearly eighty years and landed somewhere nobody would have predicted.
Bute figured out how to make audiences see music. Brickman has spent decades figuring out how to make audiences feel light. This piece is the point where those two ideas actually meet.
Why the Print Still Feels Like It's Moving
The strangest and most compelling thing about Synchromy No. 4 Escape is that it suggests motion in a completely still image. The geometric patterns and illuminated architectural shapes echo the rhythm of Bute's original film while also capturing something real — the actual energy of a live installation that thousands of people watched from the street.
That quality makes it work well in places built around conversation. In a living room, studio, creative workspace, or office, it doesn't just hang there — it gives people something to ask about, tying together abstract art, New York history, experimental film, and lighting design in one frame.
The print measures 19" × 28", full color, on 100# Dull Cover stock. That combination gives it real physical presence and a matte finish that cuts glare without dulling the color or depth. You can find it as the Marc Brickman Mary Ellen Bute Inspired Synchromy No. 4 Escape Canvas Art Print – Abstract Geometric Wall Art.
A Tribute to What Light Can Do
At its core, this piece is a story about influence. Bute helped establish light, movement, and sound as real materials for visual art, decades before anyone had the technology to do what Brickman does now. His 2015 interpretation showed exactly how far that idea could stretch — from a four-minute film shown in a small theater to an entire building lit up over Manhattan.
Synchromy No. 4 Escape lets collectors bring a piece of that lineage into their own homes. It's a tribute to a filmmaker who was decades ahead of her time, a physical record of a night New York won't forget anytime soon, and proof that light, in the right hands, becomes a lot more than illumination.
Want to see the full story behind this collaboration?
Explore the complete ESB x Whitney Collaboration collection to see all twelve interpretations Brickman created for that night.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is Synchromy No. 4: Escape and who made it?
A: It's a short abstract film made by Mary Ellen Bute in 1937–38, exploring how light and geometric movement could mirror the structure of music. It's considered a landmark piece of early visual music filmmaking.
Q: How is Marc Brickman connected to Bute's original film?
A: In 2015, Brickman reinterpreted Bute's film as part of a Whitney Museum and Empire State Building collaboration, translating its rhythm and movement into a large-scale LED light display on the building itself.
Q: What was the Empire State Building and Whitney Museum event in 2015?
A: On May 1, 2015, the Whitney partnered with the Empire State Building for a one-night light show marking the Whitney's downtown opening and the building's eighty-fourth anniversary. Marc Brickman lit the tower with twelve sequences, each based on a different work from the Whitney's collection.
Q: What size and material is the print available in?
A: The print comes in a 19" × 28" format on 100# Dull Cover stock, giving it a matte finish and enough physical presence to work as a standalone wall piece.
Q: Are there other prints from the same collaboration?
A: Yes. The ESB x Whitney Collaboration includes eight prints total, each based on a different artwork Brickman interpreted for the 2015 Empire State Building event.