Vera Molnár
The Genesis of the Trapez
Artist
Vera Molnár
(1924, Budapest - 2023, Paris), Hungarian
Original Title
The Genesis of the Trapez
Date1974
Mediumink on paper
Dimensions36 × 52 cm
Classificationsprints
Credit LineKunsthalle Praha
DescriptionVera Molnár is a pioneer of digital art. Already during her studies she displayed a propensity for systematic and geometrically reduced artistic styles. In 1946, began adhering to the tendencies of concrete art, rid of any reference to the external world. In the late 1960s, she started using mainframe computers to design her geometric and systematic art. She translates her hand-made drawings into algorithms, using chance as a design element and thus raising questions of continuity, seriality, and variability, which help her discover new combinations of shapes. This process produces randomized series of works. Molnár uses a reduced color palette and a limited number of geometric forms such as circles, squares, triangles, and lines, which she incorporates into a defined systems and series. Apart from prints produced through her computer-based work, another essential component of her oeuvre are paintings—she produces these compositions independently of computer-generated images, reflecting on the work of computers and producing a condensed synthesis of computer-generated prints.
The Genesis of the Trapeze (1974) is part of a series of computer-generated prints titled 144 Trapeziums, created in 1974. It comprises abstract and geometric symbols and is purely self-referential as it lacks any symbolic or metaphoric elements. An essential dimension of these works is the element of chance involved in and expressed by them. Molnár utilizes algorithmic probability by using a computer to generate random images. She does not interfere with the process, allowing her to evade cultural conditioning and discover unconventional combinations of forms which do not appear in nature nor in the human environment.
Vera Molnár (* 1924, Budapest) is a Hungarian artist living in Paris. She studied history of art and aesthetics at the College of Fine Arts in Budapest. In 1964, she began creating abstract, geometrically systematized paintings. A year later, she moved to Paris, where she still lives today. From 1959-1968, she began using a method dubbed “machine imaginaire”, using variable combinatorics to develop an approach analogous to that seen in her later digital works. In 1960, she co-founded GRAV (Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel), a research group studying art and computer sciences. In the same year, she also showed her work at an exhibition of concrete art in Zurich. In 1967, she co-founded the group “Art et Informatique” at the Institut d’Esthétique et des Sciences de l’Art. During the following year, she created her first computer-generated graphic. From 1968 to 1974, with the help of her husband François Molnár, she developed her own computer program, MolnArt. Alongside teaching at the Sorbonne Université, she is a member of the Centre de Recherche Expérimentale et Informatique des Arts Visuels (CREIAV). She has won several awards and medals including the Légion d'Honneur and the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres—two of France’s foremost national orders—as well as the Prix AWARE 2108 award for outstanding merit. Molnár’s work has been exhibited in Europe, the USA, and Japan. Her work is included in public and private collections around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In 2015, she had a retrospective exhibition at the Museum Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich.
The Genesis of the Trapeze (1974) is part of a series of computer-generated prints titled 144 Trapeziums, created in 1974. It comprises abstract and geometric symbols and is purely self-referential as it lacks any symbolic or metaphoric elements. An essential dimension of these works is the element of chance involved in and expressed by them. Molnár utilizes algorithmic probability by using a computer to generate random images. She does not interfere with the process, allowing her to evade cultural conditioning and discover unconventional combinations of forms which do not appear in nature nor in the human environment.
Vera Molnár (* 1924, Budapest) is a Hungarian artist living in Paris. She studied history of art and aesthetics at the College of Fine Arts in Budapest. In 1964, she began creating abstract, geometrically systematized paintings. A year later, she moved to Paris, where she still lives today. From 1959-1968, she began using a method dubbed “machine imaginaire”, using variable combinatorics to develop an approach analogous to that seen in her later digital works. In 1960, she co-founded GRAV (Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel), a research group studying art and computer sciences. In the same year, she also showed her work at an exhibition of concrete art in Zurich. In 1967, she co-founded the group “Art et Informatique” at the Institut d’Esthétique et des Sciences de l’Art. During the following year, she created her first computer-generated graphic. From 1968 to 1974, with the help of her husband François Molnár, she developed her own computer program, MolnArt. Alongside teaching at the Sorbonne Université, she is a member of the Centre de Recherche Expérimentale et Informatique des Arts Visuels (CREIAV). She has won several awards and medals including the Légion d'Honneur and the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres—two of France’s foremost national orders—as well as the Prix AWARE 2108 award for outstanding merit. Molnár’s work has been exhibited in Europe, the USA, and Japan. Her work is included in public and private collections around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In 2015, she had a retrospective exhibition at the Museum Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich.
