Vera Molnar
Vera Molnar (1924 - 2023)
"In search of a visual basis, I began to design series. I used very simple rules of combinatorics and some equally simple geometric shapes and introduced, step by step, small modifications, either in the proportion of the basic element or in the way they were joined together. My aim was not to produce an arbitrary number of pictures; these series are useful in that they give me the opportunity to juxtapose and test visual situations that are very similar. My friends who are interested in my pictures also make these comparisons with each other, because I work for them. The question is whether here and there this juxtaposition results in a significant change, a peculiar visual situation that could be called art. The fundamental problem of my entire work is to grasp this phenomenon, this 'epiphany' of the phenomenon of art. Serial work is like a visual dialogue between painter and painted object. All the stages of such a series are of course not works of art in the traditional sense. They are samples, they are stages of painterly research. I only ever accept a very small percentage of these visual possibilities. In my eyes, all my work has a hypothetical character.
In order to really process my research series systematically, I first used a technique that I called machine imaginaire. I imagined that I had a computer. I designed a programme and then, step by step, I created simple, limited series that were self-contained, i.e. did not leave out a single combination of forms. As soon as I was able to do so, I replaced the illusory computer, the imaginary machine, with a real computer.
To avoid any misinterpretation of my process, I would like to emphasise that although a large proportion of my works are designed and often executed with the help of a computer, the computer is not responsible for whether these works have any value or none at all. This machine, as impressive as it may be, is ultimately just a tool in the painter's hand. I use the computer to combine forms with each other in the hope that this tool will allow me to distance myself from what I have learned, what I have inherited culturally and what else surrounds me, in short, from the influences of civilisation that shape us. Thanks to its great combination possibilities, the computer helps systematic research in the visual field, helps the painter to free himself from cultural 'readymades' and to find combinations of forms that have never been seen before, neither in nature nor in a museum: it helps to create unimaginable images. The computer helps, but it doesn't 'make', 'designs', 'invent' anything. To avoid another misunderstanding, I would like to emphasise something else: The fact that something is new and has never been seen before in no way guarantees its aesthetic quality. Was the image of a young man with curly hair - Dürer's self-portrait from around 1500 - new?
My works are always created from the simplest geometric shapes. This choice has its real cause in my personal taste: I like the formal rigour and economy of geometry, I like the rational purity of mathematics. 'Nature can afford to be wasteful in everything, the artist must be economical down to the last detail', said Paul Klee; that is also my view."
V. Molnar
[This text was first published in Vera Molnar. Lignes, Formes, Couleurs, Cat. Exh. Vasarely Múzeum, Budapest 1990, p. 16 f.]
| 2023 | Drawing Now Art Fair Paris, France |
| Vera Molnar. 99 ans Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès, Paris, France | |
| RE-RÉ-RES – Hommage à Vera Molnar Institut Liszt Centre Culturel Hongrois, Paris, France | |
| 2022 | OEuvre murale Fondation d’entreprise Pernod-Ricard, Paris, France |
| Couper Coller Construire Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès, Paris, France | |
| Vera Molnar : Variations Beall Center for Art + Technology, Irvine, California, USA | |
| 2021 | Pas froid aux yeux Château de Mouans, Mouans-Sartoux, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes |