Manfred Mohr
Manfred Mohr (born 1938 in Pforzheim, Germany) began as a goldsmith’s apprentice and went on to attend the Kunst und Werkschule in Pforzheim, Germany, before becoming an artist who can be regarded as a leading pioneer of digital art today. Despite initial critical voices, he began consistently using the medium of the computer as an artistic means, thereby contributing to the establishment of computer art as a legitimate form in the art discourse. Mohr’s leitmotif is the cube, which he explores in stunning ways by representing it as something spatial yet fragmented. Mohr is not only a visual artist, but also a Jazz musician. When talking about geometry, he always describes sound in space – for example, the sound of the visible equilibrium between lines.
Since the 1960s, Max Bense’s writings about the aesthetics of information have continued to have a decisive impact on Mohr’s artistic self-understanding. In 1962, Mohr began developing his own black and white pictorial language based on his earlier Art Informel paintings. He created complex symbols and combined basic geometric forms with elements that were borrowed from everyday perception. In 1969, he created his first computer generated plotter drawings using algorithms. From that time forward, the computer – with its perfect processing power and calculability – became a tool for Mohr’s programming. His focus has since shifted away from creating symbols toward exploring issues of spatiality, such as the two-dimensional rendering of cubes. His systematic engagement with abstractions of the cube have also resulted in fourteen series of works, of which the six-part work “Cubic limit II (P-202)” is a prime example. It shows configurations of lines, each of which suggests a turned cube in fragments, on a white ground.
In 2002, Manfred Mohr began compiling these individual cube studies into moving images on screen. Although the artist defines the initial parameters, he also includes an element of chance in his programming. His work thus bridges the gap between artist and technology and subverts the idea of the artist as a genius with an individual style.
Ursula Meier
Since the 1960s, Max Bense’s writings about the aesthetics of information have continued to have a decisive impact on Mohr’s artistic self-understanding. In 1962, Mohr began developing his own black and white pictorial language based on his earlier Art Informel paintings. He created complex symbols and combined basic geometric forms with elements that were borrowed from everyday perception. In 1969, he created his first computer generated plotter drawings using algorithms. From that time forward, the computer – with its perfect processing power and calculability – became a tool for Mohr’s programming. His focus has since shifted away from creating symbols toward exploring issues of spatiality, such as the two-dimensional rendering of cubes. His systematic engagement with abstractions of the cube have also resulted in fourteen series of works, of which the six-part work “Cubic limit II (P-202)” is a prime example. It shows configurations of lines, each of which suggests a turned cube in fragments, on a white ground.
In 2002, Manfred Mohr began compiling these individual cube studies into moving images on screen. Although the artist defines the initial parameters, he also includes an element of chance in his programming. His work thus bridges the gap between artist and technology and subverts the idea of the artist as a genius with an individual style.
Ursula Meier
Born:
8.6.1938, Pforzheim
8.6.1938, Pforzheim
Works by Manfred Mohr
