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== Biography == Vera Molnar, a French artist, was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1924. After viewing an uncle's painting of woodland nymphs at the age of 12, she decided to become a painter. Even at a young age, she began to develop systematic ways of creating art. Barbara Nierhoff's biography of Vera Molnar relates an interesting example. Each night before bed, Molnar would draw a lake she could see from her bedroom window with only five colors: green for the grass along the lakeshore, blue for the lake, brown for the mountains, blue for the sky above the mountains, and orange for the setting sun. After creating a number of these images, she was no longer satisfied with the results. She then decided to use the respectively adjacent color instead. In 1947, she graduated as a Professor of Art History and Aesthetics from the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. As can be seen in sketches of Molnar's from 1946, her uncle's trees have been abstracted into geometric shapes, a theme that remains in her current work. After graduating, she completed an artists′ fellowship in Rome at the Villa Julia then moved to Paris where she has been making art ever since. Although Molnar may be best known for being a pioneer of computer art, her systematic method to creating art began in 1959, almost 10 years before she began using a computer, through what she called the “Machine Imaginaire”. Molnar imagined she had a computer, creating a series of steps by which an image would be created. By repeatedly following this procedure with slight modifications, Molnar created series of images to research the subtleties that turn a collection of forms into the “epiphany” of art. Creating this art by hand was very limiting for Molnar. Because the time and tedium involved, she was unable to freely explore every visual possibility of a set of rules. This ended in 1968 when she began creating art with the use of a computer, an IBM 370 with an IBM 2250 CRT monitor, and plotter. Now the machine imaginaire was real, allowing Molnar to quickly adjust parameters and see the visual result. Entire sessions could now be saved and reproduced later as a print, painting, or sculpture by Molnar or an assistant. Chance operations is an obvious generative techniques present in her work and can be seen in “Hypertransformations”, “144 Trapezoids”, and “(Dés)Ordres”. Her work process itself can be considered to be similar to a genetic system best described by the artist herself: “When I have an idea for a new picture, I make the first version of it rather quickly. Usually I am more or less dissatisfied with it and I modify it. I alter in a stepwise manner the dimensions, proportions and arrangement of the shapes. When simple geometrical shapes are used, such modifications are relatively easy to make. By comparing the successive pictures resulting from a series of modifications, I can decide whether the trend is toward the result that I desire. What is so thrilling to experience is not only the stepwise approach toward the envisioned goal but also sometimes the transformation of an indifferent version into one that I find aesthetically appealing. “ - TOWARD AESTHETIC GUIDELINESFOR PAINTINGS WITH THE AID OF A COMPUTER, Vera Molnar “There are differences, however, between my method and that widely used by other artists. Whereas they begin with an initial set of rules (a grammar) specifying the way parameters are to be varied, I try to elaborate the rules as a work develops. “ - TOWARD AESTHETIC GUIDELINESFOR PAINTINGS WITH THE AID OF A COMPUTER, Vera Molnar == Generative Art Connections == == Generative Works == == Quotes == "This machine, as impressive as it may be, is after all merely a tool in the hand of the painter. I use the computer to combine forms, hoping that this tool will enable to distance myself from what I have learned, from my cultural heritage and everything else that surrounds me; in brief, from the influences of civilization that define us." - INCONCEIVABLE IMAGES, Vera Molnar "The computer helps, but it does not 'do', does not 'design' or 'invent' anything." - INCONCEIVABLE IMAGES, Vera Molnar "What are the specific elements of a composition that cause it to give to me aesthetic satisfaction and then later to a viewer? I seek a concrete answer, one that entails experimentation rather than philosophical speculations." - TOWARD AESTHETIC GUIDELINESFOR PAINTINGS WITH THE AID OF A COMPUTER, Vera Molnar "[M]y computer-aided procedure is simply a systematization of the traditional approach. ...In spite of their advantages, computers, no more than other simpler tools, do not guarantee that a work of art of good quality will result, for it is an artist's skill that is the decisive factor" -TOWARD AESTHETIC GUIDELINESFOR PAINTINGS WITH THE AID OF A COMPUTER, Vera Molnar "I do not make drawings and paintings with the aid of a computer solely for personal satisfaction; I hope that others will also enjoy them. I do not agree with the notion of art for art's sake and of science for the sake of science…There should be an intermediate ground where aesthetic satisfaction is experienced mutually…I subscribe to the belief that the underlying principles for giving aesthetic satisfaction to viewers of drawings and paintings can be found and I hope that my studies will help to verify my conviction." -TOWARD AESTHETIC GUIDELINESFOR PAINTINGS WITH THE AID OF A COMPUTER, Vera Molnar == Bibiography == V. Molnar. “Toward aesthetic guidelines for paintings with the aid of a computer,” Leonardo, vol. 8, no. 3, pp.185-189, 1975. P. Prince. “Computer art in the new millenium,” IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 26 – 27, Jan./Feb. 2000. V. Molnar. “My Mother's Letters: simulation by computer,” Leonardo, vol. 28, no.3, pp. 167-170, 1995. V. Molnar. “Homepage – Vera Molnar,” October 19, 2009. [Online]. Available: www.veramolnar.com [Accessed Nov. 15, 2009]. F. Popper. “Visualization, cultural mediation and dual creativity,” leonardo.info, Jul. 2009. [Online]. Available: http://www.leonardo.info/isast/articles/popper.html. [Accessed: Nov. 15, 2009]. Digital Arts Museum, “DAM :: Artists :: Phase One :: Vera Molnar,” dam.org. [Online]. Available: http://dam.org/dox/2456.6Pkud.H.1.De.php. [Accessed: Nov. 15, 2009]. V. Molnar. “Inconceivable Images” First published in Vera Molnar. Lignes, Formes, Couleurs, cat. exhib. Vasarely Múzeum, Budapest 1990, p. 16 f. == External Links == http://www.e-vai.net/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=1748 == Credits == This entry was written by Meredith McLendon

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