Véra Molnar

Véra Molnar
1924-2023
Interruptions
1968
Created with a Benson plotter, black ink on translucent machine-made wove paper
12 5/8 x 12 5/8 inches (32 x 32 cm)
Gift of Agnes Gund.
© Véra Molnar / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
2017.353
Notes: 

Molnar is a pioneer of computer art. Prior to gaining access to mainframe computer in 1968, she had already begun to think of her geometric abstractions in programmatic ways, using algorithms to produce paintings and drawings that respond to the history of modernism. She continued these investigations in her digital work. This drawing, one of the first she produced with a computer, was created using a program of her own devising, which she entered into a punch card and printed on a plotter printer. It is part of a series of "Interruptions," each one of which is unique. Molnar included a degree of randomness in her programs, resulting in gaps in the composition, as can be seen in the present work. This drawing represents an important development in the history of the medium.

Provenance: 
The artist (Senior & Shopmaker, New York); from whom acquired by the Morgan through a gift of Agnes Gund (2017).
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