Artist and Technology [1/2]

Manfred Mohr

Manfred Mohr, P-708/AA1, 2000 endura chrome, canvas, vinyl

Manfred Mohr was one of the first artists to use a computer to create art and is considered a pioneer of digital art. Mohr started as an abstract expressionist painter and a jazz musician. With painting, he didn't know if the outcome will be good or bad before he started. On the other hand, with writing music, he knew from the beginning what he wanted to do with the harmony and melody. So he asked the question how he could produce artwork that he knew the outcome of the piece. While searching for the answer, he was inspired by a German professor, Max Bense, who argued for rational art. He then realized that that was the answer to his question, and decided to start making rational art. At that time he was making action paintings and slowly became more geometric. When it became geometric, Mohr thought that it was rational art. But he knew that the lines were rational art but not the content. Then he met a French composer Pierre Barbaud, a computer musician, encouraged Mohr to write a program for his first drawing.


And for the last forty years, Mohr's artwork was solely made by computers. He writes his own program and algorithm that have set rules that calculate and then create the work that can't be taken into other forms. Mohr wants his work to stand alone as an entity, separate from the process of the making and focus on what is happening in the painting visually.