Peter plotter drawing 1965 computer3/7/2024 Though overlooked for years, Vera Molnár’s legacy is rightfully being rectified, perhaps most significantly when she took pride of place at “ The Milk of Dreams”: the critically lauded 2022 edition of the Venice Biennale, curated by Cecilia Alemani, devoted an entire gallery to Molnár’s early computer works. Although the artist has generated test mints to preview the series, each unique edition will only be minted at the moment that it’s sold. In another twist that will be familiar to digital collectors, the 500 works that comprise “Themes and Variations” won’t actually exist until they’re purchased. It also marks Sotheby’s foray into Dutch auctions, a popular bidding format in digital art that sees works offered at a set price (in this case, 20 ETH) and reduce by a set amount (0.75 ETH) until it’s sold. Test mints from Vera Molnár’s “Themes and Variations” are on view at Sotheby’s New York 10–16 July The artist affirmed her infatuation with including herself directly in the process, telling Baby: “Even today, my greatest pleasure in life is to slide the tip of a pencil over the paper, look at the mark, erase it and start again.” Yet unlike LeWitt, who elevated the concept above the actual implementation of his directions, Molnár’s unique works achieve a level of intimacy and immediacy on paper. In a way, these early computer works are reminiscent of those by another well-known conceptual artist: Sol LeWitt, who also achieved modular arrangements through a collaborative-yet-defined process. The display gave the artist the ability to see her imaginary calculations. Later, Molnár told Obrist, with the development of screens, her art-making process “became a dialogue” with the machine. The stimulating series, called “Interruptions,” is not only original in conceit, but it places her in dialogue with the women who were at the forefront of computer development in the mid-century. Using the early programming language FORTRAN, Molnár generated straight lines that rotated in various degrees to mesmerizing effect. Victoria & Albert MuseumĪt the time, programming was done on physical punch cards in fact, the word “computer” derives from the name of the occupation of people – mostly women – who compiled these paper calculations. The head of the department, as Molnár told Hans Ulrich Obrist (PDF), “gave me a look and I had the feeling that he was considering whether he should call for a nurse to sedate me.” Yet she was granted access, and alongside scientists and researchers was allowed to rent a computer by the minute. Still, in 1968, she knocked on the door of the Paris University computer center and asked if she could use their machine to make art. “Everyone was scandalized, basically, no one looked at what I was doing it seemed so terrible.” Other artists, she recalls, accused her of “dehumanizing” art. “When the computer arrived, it put me completely on the fringe of the whole society,” Molnár told the art historian Vincent Baby about her work. In the 1960s, a series of breakthroughs made computers more widely available – and culturally central. Although Molnár soon left GRAV over disagreements over computers and the group dissolved before the end of the decade, its interest in Kinetic Art and Op Art held certain formal alignments with the computer-generated work that she was on the verge of creating. By the 1960s, she had cofounded the collaborative organization Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV), whose membership included François Morellet and Julio Le Parc and who met to discuss the aesthetics of collaboration and spectatorship.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |