“She is considered to be one of the pioneers of Digital Art: in 1968, Vera Molnar, living in Paris, was among the first persons using the computer as a meditum of creating art. Already in 1959, the first digitally produced pictures hat not yet existed, she developed her machine imaginaire and with this machine, she created pictures by means of selfinvented algorithmus: “I imagined I had a computer. I created a programm and then, step by step, realized simple, limited series, which, though, were self-contained, thus not skipping any shape combination.”
With this concept of the machine imaginaire, Vera Molnar quite early set a corner-stone for a decided artistic use of the computer. Since 1968, the computer is a central device of her artistic work. In this continuity that lasts even until today, the work of Vera Molnar constitutes a peak level of Digital Art….”
Excerpted from the book, Vera Molnar Bremen: Kunsthalle Bremen.
Vera Molnar has done some pathbreaking artwork for digital arts since 1959. The curious thing is that she uses self-created algorithms to create her artworks without a computer. She is an artist who had created some very good “computer-artwork” without any real computer.
At http://www.artnet.de/magazine/features/quest/quest07-17-08_detail.asp
you can find an interview with Vera Molnar. She answered some questions about her life and her art. The interview is in german, I don’t found the english version if there is one.
Short biography:
1924
born in Budapest, has lived and worked since 1947 in France (Paris and Normandy)
1942-47
Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Budapes
1947
Rome fellowship
1960
Member of GRAV (Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel)
1968
onwards work with computer and plotter
1974-76
developed the computer programme “Molnart”
1980
Member of the Centre de Recherche Experimentale et Informatique des Arts Visuels (CREIAV) at the Sorbonne, Paris
1980-85
Lecturer in visual art and art history at the Sorbonne, Paris
2005
Awarded Develop Digital Art Award (DDAA) 2005, Berlin
Taken from: http://www.museum-ritter.de/sprache2/n679906/i804965.html