Lunchtime Lectures: Vera Molnar and Generative Art

Over seven decades, Vera Molnar (1924–2023) used algorithms, executed by hand or machine, to investigate what art could be. Join Melanie Lenz, curator of Digital Art at the V&A, as she discusses Molnar’s practice, the focus of the new display Degrees of Disruption: Vera Molnar and Generative Art.  

Discover how her art both playfully and rigorously examined the interplay between geometric abstraction and the use of computers, and how she introduced a degree of randomness into her rule-based works. The talk will also discuss how Molnar’s ideas continue to resonate with contemporary artists who explore the creative possibilities of machines, systems, and chance.

Melanie Lenz is curator of Digital Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum where she is responsible for developing the V&A’s digital art collections. Focusing on the critical intersection of art practice and emergent technologies, she has curated multiple exhibitions and led on a broad range of public programmes including co-developing the V&A’s Digital Art Season. Melanie is co-editor of the forthcoming publication Emergence: Art and Generative Systems 1960-Today and previously co-edited the V&A book Digital Art: 1960 to Now (2024).