VERA MOLNAR | MACHINE IMAGINAIRE

Vera Molnar, Encore Moins, 15 x 15 cm, Pencil Drawing/ Collage, 2006-2007
Vera Molnar, Variations St. Victoire, 29,7 x 42 cm, Laser Print, Edition of 4, 1989-1996
Vera Molnar, Pas de Deux, 18,5 x 18,5 cm, Ink on paper, 1997
Vera Molnar, Triangles, 12 x 35 cm, Plotter drawing, ink on paper, 1987
Vera Molnar, Variations St. Victoire, 29,7 x 42 cm, Laserprint, 1998
Vera Molnar, Triangles, 12 x 35 cm, plotter drawing, ink on paper, 1998
Vera Molnar, Encore Moins, 15 x 15 cm, pencil drawing/ collage, 2006-2007
Vera Molnar, Hommage à Dürer, 13 x 36 cm, Laser print, 1992
Vera Molnar, Pas de Deux, 18,5 x 18,5 cm, Ink on paper, 1997
Vera Molnar, Une ligne grecque après tremblement de terre, 61 x 230 cm, Laserprint on paper, 1996/2004
Vera Molnar, Hommage à Dürer, 30 x 30 cm, Plotter drawing, 1990
Vera Molnar, 8 Carrés coupés, 48 x 48 cm, Collage, 2018
Vera Molnar, Étude á Pythagore, veriable sizes, Plotterdrawing, 1989
Casey Reas, Hommage à Molnar, Software, variable size, 2023
Vera Molnar, VM, 28 x 40 cm, Laserprint, 2004
Vera Molnar, Fragment sur Fragment, 18 x 26 cm, Laserprint Collage, 2004
Vera Molnar, Machine Imaginaire, 2023, exhibition view. Photograph by Ea Bertrams
Vera Molnar, Machine Imaginaire, 2023, exhibition view. Photograph by Ea Bertrams
Vera Molnar, Machine Imaginaire, 2023, exhibition view. Photograph by Ea Bertrams

MACHINE IMAGINAIRE

Vera Molnar

28 January – 01 April 2023

Opening on Friday, 27 January 2023 from 7 – 9 pm. 

For the first time “Hommage à Molnar”, generative software by Casey Reas.

 

The famous concept of the “Machine Imaginaire”, meaning the imaginary computer by Vera Molnar from the 1960s, provides access to her entire oeuvre, consisting of drawings, paintings, collages and later also many computer drawings or prints. The basis was always her vision, her concept, which she often developed further in series. In the beginning, she only imagined the computer, but from 1968 onwards it enabled an important expansion of her creative work. Vera Molnar has already gone down in the history of digital art as an important pioneer. However, to reduce her merits to her use of the computer would not do justice to her work of over 70 years. 

Vera Molnar celebrated her 99th birthday in January and we are taking this as an opportunity to provide an insight into her work alongside the plotter drawings that have helped shape her work over the decades. DAM Projects will show examples of various phases of her work, including drawings, collages, mixed media and paintings, as well as computer works from the last 40 years.  

The art historian Zsofi Valyi-Nagy, who extensively researched her life’s work, wrote:

“Familiar viewers will recognize Molnar’s visual language: her geometric forms, her variations on a theme, and her minimalistic lines, which, whether drawn by hand or with a plotter, are unmistakably hers. In her artist’s statement for the 1981 Berlin show, Molnar wrote that she uses geometric shapes not because she finds them more beautiful or “better” than other shapes, but because they resist subjective interpretations. From a practical perspective, they are also easier to describe and manipulate. Indeed, in early vector graphics systems, circles, squares, and lines were the simplest forms one could ‘draw’ with a computer.”