The V&A brings together over 50 works by Vera Molnar and contemporary practitioners, among them Casey Reas, Harm van den Dorpel, Licia He, William Mapan and Matt DesLauriers, to trace how her early experiments with computers and algorithmic thinking carry into digital art today.
Vera Molnar ran simple algorithms by hand on grid paper from 1959 and first used a computer in 1968. The display includes her plotter drawings Interruptions (1969) and (Des)Ordres (1974), along with later New Year plotter drawings such as Bonne Année 1986.
Among the contemporary works are Casey Reas's MicroImage (2002), Licia He's plotter painting I'm Saying I'll Have to Check In (2023), William Mapan's Sketchbook A #64 (2023) and Harm van den Dorpel's Bluena from the series Algues Artificielles (2016). The V&A has also recently acquired two editions of Matt DesLauriers' Meridian (2021).
The display in Rooms 88A and 90 is curated by Melanie Lenz. Entry is free, and no booking is required.
