Watch 1968 Artifact (2017) Official Trailer

Even by the late 1960s, to my knowledge, there had been no “Abstract Expressionist” non-referential, extended painting applied directly to motion picture film. All previous examples of “direct animation” were more or less figurative, although some by Len Lye involved stenciling and dancing geometric shapes, all previous examples adhered mostly to some kind of a figure based continuity between individual frames.