PART 2: The History of Digital Art for Crypto Explorers

60s–70s: PIONEERS OF COMPUTER ART

Artists Who Made an Impact in the History of Digital Art

The 1960s and 1970s play a significant role in the history of digital art. During that time art started to intersect with technology and artists began experimenting with computers, often in collaboration with engineers. Some of those who left a strong impact in the development of digital art, include Georg Nees, Frieder Nake, Kenneth Knowlton and Leon Harmon, Vera Molnár and Lillian Schwartz.

GEORG NEES

Georg Nees (1926-2016) was a German mathematician and academic. He studied mathematics, physics and philosophy. He was the first person to publicly show art that was generated by a computer – computer art, which is today generally called digital art, generative art and in his specific case we would refer it as algorithmic art.

GEORG NEES, 23-ECKE (POLYGON OF 23 VERTICES), 1964, SOURCE- COMPART [2]

GEORG NEES, SCREENPRINT ON PAPER, MOUNTED ON BOARD, 1970, GIVEN BY THE COMPUTER ARTS SOCIETY, SUPPORTED BY SYSTEM SIMULATION LTD, LONDON, COPYRIGHT © VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON [3]

FRIEDER NAKE

Frieder Nake (b.1938) is a German mathematician, computer scientist, regarded as one of the pioneers of computer art. In the 1960s he created an algorithm to explore Paul Klee’s use of vertical and horizontal lines. His source of inspiration was Klee’s 1929 painting Highroads and Byroads. Nake’s ultimate goal was not that of creating an exact reproduction of Klee’s artwork. He rather explored ideas about possible algorithmic art forms.

Nake defined the parameters for the computer and the pen plotter to draw […] He then deliberately wrote random variables into the program which allowed the computer to make choices of its own, based on probability theory.
THE VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM

FRIEDER NAKE, HOMMAGE À PAUL KLEE, 13/9/65 NR.2, COPYRIGHT © VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON [4]

PHOTOGRAPH OF A PLOTTER DRAWING, ‘RANDOM POLYGONS’, BY FRIEDER NAKE, 1964. GIVEN BY THE AMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE V&A THROUGH THE GENEROSITY OF PATRIC PRINCE, COPYRIGHT © VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON [5]

FRIEDER NAKE, WALK-THROUGH-RASTER, 1967, COPYRIGHT © VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON [6]

KEN KNOWLTON AND LEON HARMON

Ken Knowlton (b.1931) is an artist, mosaicist, portraitist and a computer graphics pioneer. He used to work at Bell Labs. Leon Harmon (1922-1983) was a researcher in mental/neural processing. In 1966 Knowlton and Harmon experimented with photomosaic and made the first experiment to scan a photograph into a computer, recreating it with a different range of grey generated by mathematical and electronic symbols. Their famous image of a reclining nude is what Knowlton and Harmon defined as “computer-processed creatures”.

E.A.T

Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) was a collective set up in 1967 in New York to foster collaborations between artists and engineers. This organisation was originally founded by engineers Billy Klüver and Fred Waldhauer, and artists Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Whitman. It gave rise to installations and performances incorporating new technologies.

EXPERIMENTS IN ART AND TECHNOLOGY (E.A.T.), SOURCE: DIGICULT [8]

ALLAN KAPROW

E.A.T served as a source of inspiration for many artists who continued to explore the intersection between art and technology. In 1969 American artist Allan Kaprow (1927-2006) created his famous artistic TV happening, an interactive experience between groups of people and television technologists.

ALAN KAPROW, HELLO, 1969, SOURCE: ECOLOGY OF INTIMACY [9]

DESMOND PAUL HENRY

Desmond Paul Henry (1921-2004) is one of the early British pioneers of computer art in the 1960s. He is renowned for having constructed three mechanical drawing machines from bombsight analogue computers, which were used by fighter pilots during World War II. Henry’s machine-generated effects present complex abstract and curvilinear graphics and are considered early examples of computer graphics.

DESMOND PAUL HENRY, #824, 1963, SOURCE: KATE VASS GALERIES [2]

LILLIAN SCHWARTZ

Lillian Schwartz (b.1927) is an American artist, regarded as a pioneer in computer art. She was a member of the collective Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) in the 1960s and collaborated with engineers on different projects. She brought significant innovations to the field of computer art during the 1960s and 1970s and contributed to the developments of graphics, film, video, 2D/3D animation and special effects.

LILLIAN SCHWARTZ, CHARMS, 1970, SOURCE: ARTSY, MAGENTA PLAINS NEW YORK [4]

PAUL BROWN

Paul Brown (b.1947) is an Anglo-Australian artist, writer and educator who has been focussing on art, science and technology since the 1960s and on computational & generative art since the 1970s. Between 1977 and 1979 he studied at the Slade School of Art in London, one of the few institutions which fully incorporated the use of computers into art during the 1970s. He is an internationally recognised artist.

PAUL BROWN, THE LABYRINTH OF THE LAW, ORIGINAL GRATE VISUALISATION DIGITAL IMAGE, SOURCE- PAUL-BROWN.COM, COPYRIGHT © PAUL BROWN [6]

VERA MOLNÁR

Vera Molnár (b. 1924) is a French artist of Hungarian origin. She is regarded as one of the pioneers of computer and algorithmic arts. In the 1960s she started creating algorithmic paintings with simple geometrical forms and co-founded the group “Art et Informatique” in 1967, investigating the intersection between art and computing. As explained in “Digital Art: Painting with Pixels” by Ron Miller, Vera Molnár believed that:

Without the aid of a computer, it would not be possible to materialize quite so faithfully an image that previously existed only in the artist’s mind. This may sound paradoxical, but the machine, which is thought to be cold and inhuman, can help to realize what is most subjective, unattainable, and profound in a human being.
VERA MOLNÁR

VERA MOLNÁR, A LA RECHERCHE DE PAUL KLEE, 1970, INK ON PAPER, COLLECTION FRANC BRETAGNE, COPYRIGHT © ADAGP, PARIS, CREDIT PHOTO HERVÉ BEUREL [7]

VERA MOLNÁR, INTERRUPTIONS, 1968/69, SOURCE: ARTNOME, COPYRIGHT © VERA MOLNÁR [8]

ROBERT W. MALLARY

Robert W. Mallary (1917-1997) was an American artist, renowned mostly for his Neo-Dada, “junk art” sculptures, which he created from different materials and urban rubbish during the 1950s and 1960s. He is also remembered for his major contributions to computer art and for having created one of the first sculptures generated by computer in 1968.

ROBERT W. MALLARY, 3 COLOUR PLOTTER GRAPHIC, 1972, COMPUTER DRAWING, SOURCE: TELEGRAPH [10]

MANFRED MOHR

Manfred Mohr (b. 1938) is a German artist regarded as one of the pioneers of digital art. Initially an action painter and a jazz saxophonist, he turned to computer art in the late 1960s. He transposed the rhythm, energy and sense of improvisation gained from making music to creating algorithmic art. He has been based in New York since 1981.

MANFRED MOHR, CUBIC LIMIT, 1973–1974, DIGITAL TRANSFER OF 16MM FILM, SOURCE: ARTSY, BITFORMS GALLERY NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES, SAN FRANCISCO [12]

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*This article is for non-profit educational purposes. We do not represent or work with any of the featured artists. The copyright of all images belong to their authors. We aim to contribute to the research in the field of digital art and hope our readers will find this article beneficial to their learning.