Vera Molnar (1924-2023)

Visual artist. Vera Molnar, who has lived in France since 1947, is a pioneer in computer art. In 1960, she was a founding member of Groupe de Recherche d’art Visuel (GRAV), and she participated in the exhibition titled Konkrete Kunst [Concrete Art], organized by Max Bill at Helmhaus, Zürich. In 1959, she began making combinatorial images and modelling mathematical patterns by a method which she called the “machine imaginaire”. Then in 1968, she had a very early opportunity to exchange her imaginary computer for a real one. Molnar began to use the programming language as a generative tool in her artistic work when making her paintings and graphics. She creates images using a limited number of simple forms and produces sequences by gradually changing the proportions and the arrangement of the elements. In Molnar’s case, the purpose of the seriality lays in the possibility of continuous comparison and analysis of the individual images, and in the possible visualisation of the changing process that takes place. Computer generated algorithmic chance plays a key role in Molnar’s works, and the concepts of order and disorder, structure and freedom are important in her art. Her first solo exhibition was held in 1976 at the London Polytechnic, and her first artist’s book titled Ein Prozent Unordnung [One Percent Disorder] was published in 1980 by Wedgepress & Cheese, Bjerred. Her works are continuously displayed at solo exhibitions in Hungary (e.g. Lines, Forms, Colours, Vasarely Museum, Budapest, 1990; One Percent Disorder. Kepes Institut, Eger, 2012; Vera Molnar. Art Gallery of Paks, 2007-2008; Disorder in Order. Kiscell Museum – Municipal Gallery, Budapest, 2019), and internationally (e.g. (Un)Ordnung. Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich, 2015; Pomenades en carré. Museum Ritter, Waldenbuch, 2020), and at group shows (e.g. Elles. Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2009; Ein Quadrat ist ein Quadrat ist ein Quadrat. Museum Ritter, Waldenbuch, 2015; Thinking Machines: Art and Design in the Computer Age, 1959–1989. MoMA, New York, 2017). Her works can be found in the collections of the a Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris), Centre Pompidou (Paris), a Forum Konkrete Kunst (Erfurt), a Hungarian National Gallery – Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest), MoMA (New York), Museum Ritter (Waldenbuch) and Victoria and Albert Museum (London), among others.