3 PIONEERS OF COMPUTER ART 1969 – 1977
‘Writing New Codes’ presents three major pioneers of computer art – Waldemar Cordeiro (b. 1925 Rome, Italy – d. 1973 São Paulo, Brazil), Robert Mallary (b. 1917 Toledo, USA – d. 1997 Northampton, USA) and Vera Molnár (b.1924 Budapest, Hungary) from three different corners of the globe with early computer art from 1969 – 1977. Although each has an original style and distinctive approach, influenced by aspects of Constructivism, Op Art, Systems Art and Conceptualism and Concrete art, with these works can be seen a similar modernist aesthetic and common interest in exploiting the unique capabilities inherent in the computer. Artists have always been early adopters of new technology, but the complexity and rarity of computers meant that any art form based around them was bound to be a particularly specialised branch of modernism.
The computer like any tool or machine, extends human capabilities. But it is unique in that it extends the power of the mind as well as the hand. – Robert Mallary
