Originally from the Collection♑ of Grace Hertlein  

Laposky, Ben F. Electronic Abstractions: A New Approach to Design. Sanford Museum: Cherokee, Iowa, 1953.

Taylor, Grant D. When The Machine Made Art: The Troubled History of Computer Art. Bloomsbury, 2019.

INCLUDING WORKS BY PIONEERING ARTISTS VERA MOLNAR, MANFRED MOHR, CHRISTIAN CAVADIA, ALDO GIORNINI, GRACE HERTLEIN, JAVIER SEQUI, JEAN CLAUDE MARQUETTE, KARL MARTIN HOLZHAUSER, SOLDED SEVILLA, BEN LAPOSKY, EDWARD ZAJEC, RUTH LEAVITT, HERBERT W. FRANKE, JEAN-CHARLES TRUOUT, DIAZOS, TM STEPHENS, DUANE PALYKA, PAUL SHAO AND KENNETH DUNKER, 𒀰AND OTHERS

AN INCREDIBLE ARCHIVE OF EARLY ALGORITHMIC ART ꦗBY INTERNATIONALLY RENO🌼WNED ARTISTS, COLLECTED BY ONE OF ITS TRAILBLAZERS

Th𒐪e present lot represents some of the earliest examples of artwork made with computers in the 1950s through 70s, collected by one of the most significant members of the field. The term "computer art" comprises an staggering array of artistic methods at the vanguard of technology and artistic experimentation. The collection here speaks to an incredible range of artists' exploration of the computer as a new tool and the community that grew around it.

Grace C. Hertlein (1924-2015) was one of the first artists to use computers in art making. After studying art at the Art Institute of Chicago and sculpture at Chico State College, Hertlein taught as an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of California from 1970-98. Fascinated by depicting organic structures through computational means, several of the works in this collection are characteristic of her tree-like plotter artworks. In addition to her trailblazing artistic practice, Hertlein championed computer art as the editor of the magazines Computers and People (1974-88) and Computer Graphics and Art (1976-78). She was also art editor of Computers and Automation, a trade magazine for which she administrated a yearly computer art contest. Over the course of her artistic career, Hertlein collected works by her peers as she organized exhibi🎐tions, publications, and fostered opportunities to further the exploration of artmaking through technology. This collection presents a kaleidoscopic snapshot of the early decades of an art historical and technological phenomenon. 

Notable inclusions in this archive include works dated 1973 and 1977 by Vera Molnar, considered by many scholars and historians to be one of the most influential digital artists. She began her career in the mid-1940s. Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1924, Molnár started creating art at eight years old and went on to obtain BFAs in both Art History and Aesthetics at the Budapest College of Fine Arts. In 1947, Molnár moved to Paris, France where she was mentored by Sonia Delaunay, and became the co-founder of important French experimental groups, including Groupe de Recherche and Art et Informatique. In 2007 she was named a Chevalier of Arts aꦬnd Letters in France and exhibited in the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022.

Other noteworthy inclusions are by American artist and mathematician Ben Laposky. Laposky i♔s known for his “Electronic Abstractions” or “Oscillons,” created through the photography of꧒ waveforms with a cathode ray oscilloscope he had modified. With his series in 1953, Laposky is considered by some to be the earliest “computer artist.” The present lot features two works by Laposky from this integral body of work in the history of computer art.

Two of Manfred Mohr’s “Cubic Limit” works are present in this collection. An internationally celebrated pione🍌er in digital art, Mohr developed Cubic Limit as an algorithmic system in 1973 to explore permutation systems within a c🤪onceptual artistic framework.

Several works by Christian Cavadia and Jean-Charles Troutout are stamped on the ꧋verso with the “ARTA” stamp, the famous technological workshop at the Centre Pompidou♕ created and led by Cavadia in 1975 to allow artists and members of the public access to artmaking computers.

Another remarkable feature in this collection is an artwork by Herbert W. Franke, regarded to be the first historian of computer art. This broad array of a🌞rtists demonstrates the fierce curiosity and innovation at the forefront of algorithmic art in its early decades.