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BiographyVera Molnár, born 1924 in Hungary [d. 2023, Paris, FR] was one of the pioneers of computer and algorithmic arts. Trained as a traditional artist, Molnár studied for a diploma in art history and aesthetics at the Budapest College of Fine Arts. She iterated combinatorial images from as early as 1959. In 1968 she began working with computers, where she began to create algorithmic paintings based on simple geometric shapes and geometrical themes.
Molnár created her first non-representational images in 1946. These were abstract geometrical and systematically determined paintings. In 1947 she received an artists’ fellowship to study in Rome at the Villa Giulia, and shortly after moved to France, where she currently resides.
In the 1960s, Molnár co-founded several artist research groups: GRAV, who investigate collaborative approaches to mechanical and kinetic art, and Art et Informatique, with a focus on art and computing. Molnár learned the early programming languages of Fortran and Basic, and gained access to a computer at a research lab in Paris where she began to make computer graphic drawings on a plotter, several of which are included in a 2015 retrospective exhibition in New York City called "Regarding the Infinite | Drawings 1950-1987.” -
WorksExhibitionsNews
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Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing 1960–1991
MUDAM Luxembourg | Vera Molnár September 20, 2024Septmeber 20, 2024 – February 2, 2025 Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing 1960-1991 surveys the history of digital art from a feminist perspective, focusing...Read more -
In Search of Vera Molnár
Pera Museum | September 19, 2024 - January 26, 2025 September 19, 2024In Search of Vera Molnár (À La Recherche de Vera Molnár) offers a close look at the practice of Vera Molnár, one of the pioneers...Read more -
Vera Molnar, Pioneer of Computer Art, Dies at 99
The New York Times | By Alex Williams December 15, 2023Vera Molnar, a Hungarian-born artist who has been called the godmother of generative art for her pioneering digital work, which started with the hulking computers...Read more
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Who Were the Women Who Pioneered Early Computer Art?
Artnet News | by Jo Lawson-TancredNovember 23, 2024 -
BETWEEN THE LINES
Artforum | By Zsofi Valyi-NagyMay 1, 2024 -
A Trailblazer of Computer Drawing Gets Her Due
By John Yau, Hyperallergic, September 19, 2022 -
Meet Vera Molnár, the 98-Year-Old Generative Art Pioneer Who Is Enjoying New Relevance at the Venice Biennale
By Jo Lawson-Tancred, Artnet news, April 19, 2022 -
What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week
The New York Times, May 2, 2018 -
Vera Molnár
By Hanna Magauer, Artforum, May 1, 2017 -
Vera Molnár
By Adam Jasper, Frieze, March 16, 2015