Manfred Mohr (artist)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Manfred Mohr before his work (2019)
Artwork "P-777_D" (2002/04). LCD screen and PC

Manfred Mohr (born June 8, 1938 in Pforzheim ) is a German digital artist with an international reputation . He is considered a pioneer of computer-generated art. In 1971, at the Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris, he had the world's first museum solo exhibition in which images that were created exclusively on a digital computer and drawn fully automatically were presented. Since the mid-1970s he has been exclusively concerned with the geometric shape of the cube in various dimensions .

music

At the beginning of his artistic development, Mohr expressed himself in painting and music. He played tenor saxophone and oboe in several bands as a jazz musician . In 1957 he attended the Kunst + Werkschule Pforzheim , where he dealt with gold and silversmithing and painting. The close contact with his professor Reinhold Reiling and the graphic artist Rainer Mürle should ultimately support him in his decision to devote himself to fine art. In 1959 he and Jürgen Leudolph founded a private jazz club in the basement of a former butcher's shop. Mohr recorded a record at the art school . Before Mohr devoted himself entirely to the fine arts, he lived as a traveling musician. In 1962 he received the art prize of the city of Pforzheim. During this time Mohr painted in the style of Abstract Expressionism . The prize included a one-year scholarship abroad, for which he registered at the partner school in Barcelona , but never attended a course there. Instead, Mohr joined the rock band of singer Rocky Volcano and toured Spain for two years . The musicians recorded several records and offered “planned nonsense” on stage, according to Mohr. He was arrested several times by the Spanish police. After his stay abroad he first returned to Pforzheim, where he devoted himself to the fine arts.

What he could not express in music, he tried to find in painting. Decades later, as a successful digital artist, Mohr described himself as a musician who did not make music. For his works he found descriptions full of analogies to the world of music; “Sound in space”, “unbelievable rhythms that cannot be invented like that”, “similar to the counterpoint to a sequence of notes in music”. The hypothesis arose that his computer-generated images are sound improvisations that are "audible" with the eye. Mohr's goal is to transfer the rationality and expressiveness of music to abstract art as well. “As a musician, you can write down a melody and know what it will sound like. In abstract art, however, there is no control. You have to be lucky. "( Manfred Mohr : freely translated from English)

Digital art

"Accuracy is becoming a design tool."

- Manfred Mohr :

In the early 1960s Mohr began his career as an action painter, influenced by the early work of KRH Sonderborg . In 1961 Mohr was still working plastically, e.g. B. at the Zerreissprobe factory , in which he stretched his girlfriend's black nylon stocking over a white wooden plate. But the binary soon caught on in his work. His early works since 1962 were consistently painted in black and white, gray was almost non-existent. The contrast between two opposites inspired him. A parallel to music can be drawn from this, the status of tone and non-tone, of tone and pause, as in Anton Webern's music . This very topic can also be found in digital art, which goes back to the computer technology of 0 and 1. Mohr doesn't want to say anything that cannot be said exactly . “Conventional art doesn't have to be precise. But for me it has to be right. With me you can rely on it being correct. "( Manfred Mohr :)

In the winter semester 1963/64 he moved to Paris and attended the École des Beaux Arts . During these years his painting style developed from Abstract Expressionism to "counter-movement", geometric hard-edge painting . In 1965 he received the school prize for lithography , but on the whole the lessons did not appeal to him.

In 1967 Mohr met Pierre Barbaud , a pioneer in computer-generated music. This inspired him to use computers for the production of artistic works. A lifelong friendship was to develop between the two men. Mohr first got access to a computer in 1968 at the University of Vincennes . There he carried out bills for pictures late at night, which he later converted by hand. In 1969 he was given the opportunity to use a computer in combination with a plotter at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and later a Zuse plotter at the Technical University of Darmstadt . But the continuous access to his new work equipment is due to a coincidence. In 1968 Mohr saw on television how a cabinet-sized computer in the Meteorological Institute printed weather maps with the help of a plotter . In this Mohr recognized the possibility of translating his musical notation into the visual arts. He asked the institute if he could use the devices for his artistic work and was met with goodwill. The institute was a restricted military area. In order to gain access, Mohr himself wrote a credentials on the stationery of the University of Vincennes . From then on he was allowed to use the plotter outside of the institute's working hours. He was now teaching himself to program. He later called the use of algorithms and rules " surrealistic geometry ". The arrangement in the Meteorological Institute lasted for thirteen years until the device was scrapped.

Mohr's first solo exhibition took place in 1968 at Galerie Daniel Templon in Paris . The exhibition signes géométrique showed black and white acrylic paintings . At that time the drawing predominated in his works. This is how you can recognize electrical wavy lines, electronic circuits, magnetic fields.

In 1969 Mohr co-founded the seminar "Art and Computer Science" ( French Le Groupe Art et Informatique de Vincennes (GAI) ) at the University of Vincennes . The group consisted of artists, musicians and scientists. The circle provided an opportunity to gain access to computers for creative work. Mohr left the group again in 1970, as he could now regularly use the computer of the Meteorological Institute. His work was never part of the GAI exhibitions.

Artwork "P021-G" (1970). Plotter drawing on paper. 40 × 40 cm

After two years of work, Mohr published his art book Artificiata I in 1969 . He calls it Visual Poetry Artist Book (loosely translated: English Visual Poetry artist's book ). Pierre Barbaud wrote a foreword. Mohr describes his claim as follows: "The viewer will have to learn to observe slight changes in characters and their parameters in order to achieve a new awareness of his visual area." ( Manfred Mohr :) Some of the works shown are reminiscent of scores , in which instead of notes designed staves compose graphic music. The works shown are hand-drawn, but have already been designed, "programmed" as it were, using rules. The methodical, algorithm-based approach for the coming years can already be seen here. However, Mohr himself found that the work has logical errors, because it “contains artistic decisions that violate the mathematical system.” ( Manfred Mohr :) That is why he wanted to work with the computer in the future. After his first exhibition with computer-drawn works, Mohr initially kept silent about the fact that the works were created with the help of the computer, because the majority of the public viewed it as an “inartistic design”. Mohr sees the advantage of the computer in the fact that the machine works flawlessly on the one hand and leaves out the emotional subjectivity, the "psychology", on the other. For him this is an extension of his artistic possibilities. There is no longer any danger of orienting oneself on the familiar and repeating oneself. The computer calculates the works for him, "which I otherwise cannot access because my psyche is in my way." ( Manfred Mohr :)

In 1971 he had the first museum solo exhibition of his computer-generated work in the Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris . It was the world's first solo exhibition of computer art in a museum, in which only images were presented that had been generated on a digital computer and drawn fully automatically.

Artwork "P1682_3735" (2015/17). Pigment ink on canvas. 40.5 × 55 cm

When Mohr finally moved to New York in 1983, he got his first home computer system. It consisted of a DEC LSI 11-23 computer from Charles River Data of Boston . In order to be able to afford a plotter, he made himself available as a beta tester for an Alpha Merics plotter. The frameless plotter allowed him to make very large pictures.

In 2014, the follow-up volume to his book Artificiata I , published in 1969, was published . In Artificiata II , staves form the basis for his graphic compositions. “I consider my work to be visual music.” ( Manfred Mohr :) In Artificiata II , multiple broken lines show the way through a single dimension with every change of direction, depicted in two dimensions. Mohr explores this geometry of sound through rhythm, repetition, loops and pauses. In 2016 an exhibition of the same name followed in London . Here the drawings and paintings were supplemented by sculptures and animations that showed calculated journeys through multiple dimensions. His work algorithmic modulations from 2019 is based on 12-dimensional cubes. He integrated the "staff lines" known from earlier works, now no longer static due to the animation.

cube

Artwork "P1273_2" (2007). Pigment ink on canvas. 126 × 126 cm

Mohr wanted to find a graphic instrument that was clearly reduced to the essentials. Using the coordinate system, he came up with the “pure Platonic form” of the cube . He has been working exclusively with this geometric shape since the mid-1970s. Focusing on the cube “was a big step for me. I had to have a system where everything is right in the first degree, a system that I can play on, like a piano. "( Manfred Mohr :) From this body he derived his algorithms, created series of straight lines, edges, Angles u. Ä. In working with the cubes, for example, he applied mathematical processes such as rotation , clipping , set theory and graph theory .

Around 1977 Mohr expanded his geometric explorations in the direction of the hypercube , more precisely to the four-dimensional tesseract . Mohr said: “Don't be afraid of dimensions! These are all just zigzag lines and 3D rotations that create a visual game from a complex line. ”( Manfred Mohr :) Strictly speaking, Mohr does not like the word dimension , because according to him it sounds“ mystical and metaphysical ”and he just sounds like that math rule mean.

In 1989 Mohr began to work with five- and six-dimensional hypercubes. In the 1990s, he continued on this path, away from tesseracts to multidimensional hypercubes that could have up to fifty dimensions. That offered him innumerable possibilities. In his 1991 work on the six-dimensional hypercube alone, Mohr had 23,040 line variations available. He called the possible projections that resulted from visual poetry. In his work Klangfarben (2006 to 2008), Mohr began to deal with an eleven-dimensional cube, which he continued in parallelResonance (2009 to 2011). Over the course of forty years, Mohr has worked with cubes in three, four, five, six and eleven dimensions; In 2019 he further developed his way of working on twelve dimensions.

Working method

Mohr still creates the programs for his art himself, which is not a matter of course for a computer artist. Mohr programs in Fortran ; “I speak this language like German.” ( Manfred Mohr :) In 1996 he estimated his stock to be around a thousand programs, “of which maybe 300 are useful and 50 are really good” ( Manfred Mohr :) In the early years, Mohr programmed something in two hours during the day and drawn on the plotter in the evening. Over the years, the instructions and thus the workload became more extensive. If he uses his existing code, he often rewrites it. In his 2017/2018 project Transit-Code , he deliberately dealt with his old programs and developed new works of art based on them.

When programming, he leaves the definition of some parameters to chance, for example the number of edges or the length of the lines. Mohr calls mathematical coincidence “his whip” because it pushes the work forward into the unknown. Mohr emphasizes that the computer is only an aid and not designed by yourself. “If I can't formulate it myself, neither can the machine. It only does what I give it to. ”( Manfred Mohr :) The computer implements the program entered by the person, fills in variables if necessary and prints it out. Before the computer starts creating images, it has to define many individual steps in rules and translate them into a program. When programming, Mohr comes to a "very crucial philosophical point" (Mohr), from which he accepts everything that the program does, whether he likes it or not. When the computer starts working, most of the work is done.

The basic processes of his artistic work are the implementation of various mathematical procedures, newly created algorithms and the selection of the results. The complexity of Mohr's work increases with the number of dimensions. Since depicting such multi-layered structures would result in "only one black spot" (Mohr), Mohr's selection is all the more important. “The selection shows my aesthetics, my style, reflects my thinking. The selection is my personality ”( Manfred Mohr :) Mohr regards all pictures as equivalent, none is better or worse, some are just more interesting or astonishing than others. He often makes the preselection by chance and looks at the pictures over several days. He speaks of the "charm of finding", of "discovering the unexpected possibilities". The resulting series of images are largely discarded by the Mohr. He already sorts the results on the screen into different categories that show their differences. He does not accept purely aesthetic aspects. Mohr describes the process of selection as an ongoing battle. Pictures that once seemed to him to be “incredibly ugly” (Mohr) turn out to be “the best” (Mohr) years later. He learns something new from them. Afterwards, he often finds the most beautiful pictures boring. Results that astonish the artist are implemented visually, in acrylic, ink, but also steel. He was, for example, in his work phase Laserglyphs which lasted 1991-1993, create laser-cut steel reliefs, which were based on work on the 6-D hypercube.

Artwork "P2210-C" (2015). LCD screen, MacMini

After working in black and white for over three decades, Mohr used color for his work space.color 1999. Due to the increasing complexity of his work, he was forced to take this step away from the binary representation. In this way he wants to find an adequate visual expression of the spatial ambiguity. The colors do not follow any color theory, but should appear as random elements. The colors must not be completely black or fully saturated . This work cycle is based on a six-dimensional hypercube. The works consist of prints and an animation that runs slowly on a screen.

In 1973 Mohr experimented with the first computer animations. But basically he wanted to create something that is independent of the time dimension; something that can be read backwards and forwards as opposed to music. In 1996 he expressed the desire to create images that move very slowly. At that time, however, the LCD screens required for this were still too expensive. After thirty years his work became so complicated and the technical development was ready that in 1999 he added the factor of time to his work. With animation he found a means of expression that shows what happens in the meantime. For his exhibition space.color.motion in 2002, Mohr designed and built PCs to implement his 6-D programs. The resulting images are displayed in real time on LCD flat screens in a slow, non-repetitive sequence. He repeated the construction of computers for his works of art several times.

philosophy

In the early 1960s, Mohr felt addressed by the philosopher - "my mentor" (Mohr) - Max Bense and his idea of ​​a rational art. The former says that aesthetic information is the content of art. Mohr fulfills this by making an aesthetic statement with logic.

Since Mohr has been using computers and plotters, he has called the works "generative work" because they were created through generative processes. He has “a kind of love-hate relationship” (Mohr) with mathematics. He is not interested in mathematics itself, but he cannot do without it.

“My art is not mathematical art, but a statement formed from my area of ​​experience. I don't want to represent cold mathematics, but a vital philosophy. "

- Manfred Mohr :

Mohr's handwriting is reflected in his desire to find an “individual algorithm” for which the mathematical formula only serves as an aid. This personalization of his work and work processes is also evident in his title "êtres-graphiques" (freely translated: graphic beings) , with which he elevates his two-dimensional signs to beings.

"My artistic goal is reached when a finished work can dissociate itself from its logical content and stand convincingly as an independent abstract entity."

"My artistic goal is achieved when a completed work can detach itself from the logical component and stand convincingly as an independent, abstract unit."

- Manfred Mohr :

Mohr is described as an artist who explored the possibilities of digital tools before they really existed. It is difficult to categorize Mohr's oeuvre . While a classic computer artist creates art on the computer, Mohr works with the computer as a neutral extension of his brain. Mohr attaches great importance to not being called a computer artist. The machine is only a means to an end for him. The Museum of Modern Art created in 1980 in the exhibition Printed Art, a View of Two Decades of Mohr's exhibit therefore a special section: computer drawing ( English Computer Drawing )

In 2016, Mohr answered the question about the direction of digital art with a quote from Marshall McLuhan : "The machine is an extension of our thinking, it is an extension of us."

gallery

  • Artwork "P-306-O" (1980/82). Acrylic / canvas / wood / 4 parts

  • Artwork "P-792_32" (2000-2007). Pigment ink on canvas / wood

  • Artwork "P1640_1322" (2014). Pigment ink on canvas

  • Artwork "P1611_5220" (2012/13). Pigment ink on canvas

Exhibitions

Selection of solo exhibitions and retrospectives :

Awards

Selection of the awards received by Mohr:

Life

Manfred Mohr was born in Pforzheim as the son of a jewelry manufacturer and grew up there. He attended the Kepler high school and trained as a goldsmith .
In 1962 he lived in Spain and between 1963 and 1981 he lived in Paris . In 1969 he met his girlfriend there, the American mathematician Estarose Wolfson. Between 1980 and 1983 Mohr lived between Paris and New York. In 1981 or 1983 the couple moved to New York City , where Mohr still lives and works today.

literature

  • Manfred Mohr, Marion Keiner, Thomas Kurtz, Nadin Mihai: Manfred Mohr . Ed .: Viviane Ehrli, 1994. Weiningen-Zürich, Lex.8 °, Waser, Zürich 1994.

Web links

Commons : Manfred Mohr  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Andreas Rauth: My life revolves around this point ... Interview with the computer art pioneer Manfred Mohr. In: jitter-magazin.de. Andreas Rauth, July 14, 2016, accessed November 17, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab Manfred Dworschak: Manfred Mohr is a purist among computer artists. In: Zeit Online. Zeitverlag Gerd Bucerius GmbH & Co. KG, Dr. Rainer Esser, October 11, 1996, accessed November 8, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f The algorithm of Manfred Mohr. In: zkm.de. ZKM Center for Art and Media, accessed on November 21, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Wolfgang Sauré: Young Pforzheim painter causes a stir in Paris . Black and white picture panels - exhibition confirms Manfred Mohr's artistic success. In: Pforzheimer Zeitung (Ed.): Pforzheimer Zeitung . No. 271 . J. Esslinger GmbH & Co. KG, Pforzheim November 23, 1968, p. 12 ( emohr.com [JPG; accessed November 9, 2019]).
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac Manfred Mohr, Marion Keiner, Thomas Kurtz, Nadin Mihai: Manfred Mohr . Ed .: Viviane Ehrli, 1994. Weiningen-Zürich, Lex.8 °, Waser, Zürich 1994 ( chapter "Courage to Consequence" by Thomas Kurtz [accessed on November 17, 2019]).
  6. ↑ a b Manfred Mohr. Even though I have lived abroad for many decades, I have always remained a “Pforzheimer” at heart. In: goldstadt250.de. City of Pforzheim, accessed on November 17, 2019 .
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Manfred Mohr - Celebrating my 50 Year Aniversary (1969 - 2019) of Creating Computer Generated Art by Writing Algorithms. From random walks to algorithmic modulations, my history of writing algorithms. In: emohr.com. Manfred Mohr, accessed on November 17, 2019 (English).
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Helen Longstreth: Take a trip to new dimensions with Manfred Mohr. In: merimedia.com. POSTmatter, Meri Media Group Ltd, February 12, 2016, accessed November 22, 2019 .
  9. ↑ a b Manfred Mohr. In: carrollfletcher.com. Carroll / Fletcher, accessed November 17, 2019 .
  10. ↑ a b c d Valentina Peri: Manfred Mohr Artificiata - Sonata Visuelle. (PDF) 13 September - 22 October 2016, vernissage 10 September. In: galeriecharlot.com. Galerie Charlot, 2016, accessed November 15, 2019 (French, English).
  11. ^ Gallery Wagner> Résidents> Manfred MOHR. In: galeriewagner.com. SARL Galerie Wagner, Jean-Marie Wagner, accessed on November 16, 2019 (French).
  12. ↑ Le GAI Vincennes. In: artinfo-musinfo.org. ArtInfo – MusInfo, accessed on November 23, 2019 (French).
  13. ↑ Gaiv (Groupe Informatique et Art de Vincennes). In: compArt daDA: the database Digital Art. University of Bremen, accessed on November 23, 2019 (English).
  14. ↑ a b c Margit Rosen: The algorithm of Manfred Mohr . Texts 1963–1979. Ed .: Margit Rosen. Spector Books, Leipzig 2014, pp. 23 . According to Andreas Rauth: My life revolves around this point ... Interview with the computer art pioneer Manfred Mohr. In: jitter-magazin.de. Andreas Rauth, July 14, 2016, accessed November 17, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Artificiata I. In: emohr.com. Manfred Mohr, accessed on November 17, 2019 (English).
  16. ^ A b Archives de l'exposition "Manfred Mohr: une esthétique programmée" (présentée à l'ARC du 11 mai au 6 juin 1971) (dossier). In: paris.fr. parismuseescollections.paris.fr, accessed on November 13, 2019 (French).
  17. ↑ a b Divisibility Manfred Mohr (exhibition catalog). (PDF) Generative work 1980 - 1981. In: emohr.com. Galerie Gilles Gheerbrant, Montreal , 1981, p. 7 , accessed on November 26, 2019 (French, English, German).
  18. ↑ a b Manfred Mohr space • color (1999 -). In: dam.org. DAM Projects GmbH, Berlin, accessed on November 27, 2019 (English).
  19. ^ Riva Castleman: Printed art: a view of two decades . The Museum of Modern Art New York. Ed .: The Museum of Modern Art. The Museum of Modern Art, New York 1980, ISBN 0-87070-531-8 , pp. 90 (American English, moma.org [PDF; accessed December 1, 2019]).
  20. ↑ Schumacher, Ulrich, Mohr: Manfred Mohr. Fractured symmetry. Algorithmic work 1967-1987 . Catalog for the Ludwigshafen 1987 exhibition. Ed .: Wilhelm-Hack-Museum. Wilhelm-Hack-Museum Ludwigshafen, Ludwigshafen 1987.
  21. ^ Josef Albers Museum, Quadrat Bottrop (Ed.): Manfred Mohr. Algorithmic work . Square Bottrop, Josef-Albers-Museum, 29 March - 3 May 1998. City of Bottrop, Bottrop 1998.
  22. ^ Manfred Mohr, Museum for Concrete Art: Manfred Mohr - 'space.color' . Museum for Concrete Art, Ingolstadt October 14 - November 11, 2001 and Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen, April 12 - June 9, 2002. Ed .: Peter Volkwein. Museum for Concrete Art, Ingolstadt 2001.
  23. ↑ Review. (No longer available online.) In: kunsthalle-bremen.de. web.archive.org, 2019, archived from the original on March 22, 2019 ; accessed on November 13, 2019 .
  24. ^ The algorithm of Manfred Mohr. 1963 − now (opening). In: zkm.de. ZKM Center for Art and Media, accessed on November 13, 2019 .
  25. ↑ a b c d e Overview. In: emohr.com. Manfred Mohr, accessed on November 13, 2019 .
  26. ↑ Artworks / Work Phases. In: dam.org. DAM Projects GmbH, Berlin, accessed on November 15, 2019 (English).
  27. ↑ Previous activities. In: camille-graeser-stiftung.ch. www.camille-graeser-stiftung.ch, accessed on November 13, 2019 .
  28. ↑ Current Members. In: americanabstractartists.org. American Abstract Artists , accessed November 13, 2019 (American English).
  29. ^ Directory of Artists' Fellows 1985-2013. (PDF) 1997. In: www.markmannmade.net. New York Foundation for the Arts. Retrieved November 13, 2019 (American English).
  30. ^ Manfred Mohr, Prize Winner 2006. In: ddaa-online.org. DAM Projects GmbH, Wolf Lieser, accessed on November 13, 2019 .
  31. ^ ACM SIGGRAPH Announces Award Recipients for 2013. In: siggraph.org. ACM SIGGRAPH, accessed November 13, 2019 (American English).
  32. ↑ ACM SIGGRAPH 2018 Award Winners. In: siggraph.org. ACM SIGGRAPH, 2018, accessed November 13, 2019 (American English).
  33. ↑ a b Manfred Mohr. In: pfenz.de. Stadtwiki Pforzheim-Enz eV, accessed on November 15, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Mohr, Manfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German computer artist
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Pforzheim
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on January 25, 2020 .