Manfred Mohr

is considered a pioneer of digital art based on algorithms. After

discovering Prof. Max Bense's information aesthetics in the early 1960's,
Mohr's artistic thinking was radically changed. Within a few years, his
art transformed from abstract expressionism to computer generated
algorithmic geometry. Further encouraged by discussions with the
computer music composer Pierre Barbaud whom he met in 1967, Mohr
programmed his first computer drawings in 1969. Since then all his
artwork is produced exclusively with the computer. Mohr develops and
writes algorithms for his visual ideas. Since 1973, he generates 2-D
semiotic graphic constructs using multidimensional hypercubes.

James F. Walker (October 8, 1913 – February 5, 1994) was an American

graphic artist,[1] twice named to the 100 Best New Talent List by Art in
America.[2][3] Walker was particularly noted for his mixed media surrealist
images, which he called "magic realism."[1] Walker was also an influential
teacher.[4][5] His work has been exhibited in America, as well as in Germany
and in France.[1]

Walker was born in Kirksville, Missouri, to James Franklin Walker Sr. and
Mable Azalea Hunt. Walker's father was a landscape artist and an early
influence,[1] and his brother is also an artist. Walker's passion for art evolved
over his lifetime into a career as artist and teacher.[4] He studied at the
University of Iowa in Iowa City receiving a BFA. He then moved to New York
City, where he studied at the American Artists School and at the studio of
Nahum Tschacbasov.[1] His work was influenced by Tschacbasov's surrealist
images.[6]

Walker joined the army in 1941, serving in the Aleutian Islands until 1945.
During the war, he married Leona Buchanan. They had one child, Joy Walker
Hall.[6] After World War II, he returned to the University of Iowa for an MA in
art history and an MFA in studio printmaking.[1] At that time, he studied
under Mauricio Lasansky,[7] considered "one of the fathers of
twentieth-century American printmaking."[8] Lasansky had brought his
printmaking skills and techniques from Stanley William Hayter's New York
Atelier 17 to the University of Iowa School of Art and History (1945–1986).
"If there is such a thing as a printmaking capital of the U.S., it could well be the
Department of Graphic Arts at the State University of Iowa in Iowa City."[9]

After an interval teaching art in Kansas, Walker took a teaching position at

the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1954–1959).[1] While at the
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Art in America twice named him to the
100 Best New Talent List, 1956 and 1959.[2][3]

Many years later, Santa Fe artist Lorraine Dickinson remembered her time in
Walker's drawing and collage classes at the School of the Art Institute. Her
work was "all in the representational mode," she said. "I didn't get into
abstract until I studied with James F. Walker in Chicago. He was determined
that we were all going to stop painting traditionally. It was like pulling teeth
but I finally got it. A few times I tried to revert back to representational, but I
get so bored with it."[10]

In 1960, Walker accepted a teaching position at Arlington High School and

later at Elk Grove High School, both in Northwest Suburban High School
District 214.[1][11] When interviewed by the Arlington High School
newspaper, The Cardinal, Walker explained his philosophy of education: "The
art department isn't run especially for the talented student, but rather to
enrich the cultural background for all students."[12] He retired from teaching
in 1975[1] and moved with his family to Gravette, Arkansas, where he
continued to work as an artist until his death in 1994.[5]

Richard Calisch, division head of English and Fine Arts at Elk Grove High
School said, "[Walker] was that special combination who had his own career
and was also a fine teacher. The kids loved him."[5]

Work[edit]
Walker's work builds on the legacy of his teacher, Mauricio Lasansky. Walker
combines a spectrum of Lasansky's graphic techniques, including collage,
monoprints, aquatint, pencil, brush, rubbings, etchings, and silkscreen. All
combinations of these techniques appear in Walker's work.[4]
In a statement to the Chicago Society of Artists, Walker described his own
work:

My paintings project my intense concern for, and interest in, the

nature of texture surfaces within the context of meticulously
rendered forms, revealing the essence of Magic Realism, a
microscopic view of every infinitesimal area upon the canvas.[1]

As he said to a reporter from Algonquin Life, an Algonquin, Illinois, community

newspaper,

A good artist paints what he sees, lives, thinks, and feels,

although his finished product may not have the slightest
congruency to what the ordinary person visualizes. In other
words, he doesn't invent pictures—he portrays
impressions—again, by what he sees, how he thinks, how he feels.
The mistake that a young art student continues to make is this
example: the country boy treks to the big city to attend art
school. He decides that now he must paint with
sophistication—rejecting all of his past association with country
life, the hills, the trees, the farm animals, etc. This is a mistake.[6]

Walker's L.H. Double O.Q.[edit]

 Walker's painting L.H. Double O.Q. stirred controversy.

Walker is perhaps best known for L.H. Double O.Q., often referred to as
his Eisenhower Mona Lisa, although Wide World Photos referred to it as "Ike
the Enigma." L.H. Double O.Q. won the Award for Collage, Casein, and
Drawing in the 1964 Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago and Vicinity
Show.[13] It is a satirical image of one of America's greatest heroes.[14] His
painting is a reference to Marcel Duchamp's 1919 painting L.H.O.O.Q. In this
work, Duchamp simply painted a mustache and beard onto a postcard
reproduction of the Mona Lisa. Walker went further.[4]

Walker's painting—probably his most famous and controversial work—caused

a media stir. It was a satirical portrait of President Dwight D. Eisenhower in
drag with a Mona Lisa smile.

The big hit or most popular outrage, if you prefer—at this year's
exhibit is a picture starkly titled, L.H. Double O.Q. It has the
smiling face of President Eisenhower in a Mona Lisa pose,
complete with headdress. A pair of false teeth floats in the sky.
Somebody's antique hands—not Ike's—are in repose.[14]

A standalone photo in the Chicago Daily Defender called it "a 'kooky' portrait
of Dwight D. Eisenhower in a Mona Lisa pose…"[15] According to a caption
from UPI Telephotos, Walker "titled it L.H. Double O.Q. for what was 'no
special reason at all.'"[16] Wide World Photos and UPI Telephotos broadcast
photos of L.H. Double O.Q. to the world. Opinions on the piece fell roughly into
two categories: "I like Ike," or "I don't like Ike."[14]

Ronald Davis is a contemporary American artist best known for his work associated
with Geometric Abstraction, Abstract Illusionism, Lyrical Abstraction, and Hard -Edge
painting. Composed of flat planes of bold color, Davis uses two -dimensional,
three-dimensional, and digital space. “Over the years I have oscillated between the hard
edge and the painterly. I do both loose and precise with facility,” the artist said of his work.
“However in these complicated times a need for clarity seems paramount. I have fou nd
that color contrast and interaction trumps drips, splatters, scumbles, and brush work and
other non-art content sludge as the means to true expression of the soul and intellect.” His
most known work is from his Dodecagon series from 1968–69 where he used colored resin
for paint and fiberglass cloth and mat to replace canvas. Born on June 29, 1937 in Santa
Monica, CA, Davis spent his early life in Cheyenne, W Y. First studying at the University of
W yoming in 1955-56, he transferred to the San Francisco Art Institute in 1960. Since the
mid-1960s, his work has circulated around ideas of abstraction, humans' relation to digital
space, and the history of painting. Considered among the most important artists of his
generation, Davis' long career has been dotted by achievements such as the reception of
a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and a sprawling 2002 retrospective at the Butler
Institute of American Art in Youngstown, OH. More recently, he has shifted his practice to
include digital painting, using si milar methods to the artist Joseph Nechvatal . Davis lives
and works in Arroyo Hondo, NM. His work are in the collections of The Museum of Modern
Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Joseph James Nechvatal (born 15 January 1951)[1] is

a post-conceptual digital artist and art theoretician who creates
computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using
custom-created computer viruses.

Life and work[edit]

 Joseph Nechvatal birth Of the viractual2001 computer-robotic assisted acrylic on
canvas

Joseph Nechvatal was born in Chicago. He studied fine art

and philosophy at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Cornell
Universityand Columbia University, where he studied with Arthur Danto while
serving as the archivist to the minimalist composer La Monte Young.[2] From
1979, he exhibited his work in New York City, primarily at Galerie Richard,
Brooke Alexander Gallery and Universal Concepts Unlimited. He has also solo
exhibited in Berlin,[3] Paris, Chicago, Cologne, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Aalst,
Belgium, Youngstown, Senouillac, Lund, Toulouse, Turin, Arles and Munich.[4]

His work in the early 1980s chiefly consisted of postminimalist gray graphite
drawings that were often photomechanically enlarged.[5]During that period he
was associated with the artist group Colab and helped establish the non-profit
cultural space ABC No Rio.[6][7] In 1983 he co-founded
the avant-garde electronic art music audio project Tellus Audio Cassette
Magazine.[8] In 1984, Nechvatal began work on an opera called XS: The Opera
Opus (1984-6)[9] with the no wave musical composer Rhys Chatham.[10]
He began using computers to make "paintings" in 1986 [11] and later, in his
signature work, began to employ computer viruses. These "collaborations" with
viral systems positioned his work as an early contribution to what is
increasingly referred to as a post-humanaesthetic.[12][13]

From 1991–1993 he was artist-in-residence at the Louis

Pasteur Atelier in Arbois, France and at the Saline Royale/LedouxFoundation's
computer lab.There he worked on The Computer Virus Project, which was an
artistic experiment with computer virusesand computer animation.[14] He
exhibited at Documenta 8 in 1987.[15][16]

In 1999 Nechvatal obtained his Ph.D. in the philosophy of art and new
technology concerning immersive virtual reality at Roy Ascott's Centre for
Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts (CAiiA), University of Wales College,
Newport, UK (now the Planetary Collegium at the University of Plymouth).
There he developed his concept of viractualism, a conceptual art idea that
strives "to create an interface between the biological and the
technological."[17] According to Nechvatal, this is a new topological space.[18]

In 2002 he extended his experimentation into viral artificial life through a

collaboration with the programmer Stephane Sikora of music2eye in a work
called the Computer Virus Project II,[19] inspired by the a-life work of John
Horton Conway (particularly Conway's Game of Life), by the general cellular
automata work of John von Neumann, by the genetic
programming algorithms of John Koza and the auto-destructive
art of Gustav Metzger.[20]

In 2005 he exhibited Computer Virus Project II works (digital

paintings, digital prints, a digital audio installation and two live electronic
virus-attack art installations)[21] in a solo show
called cOntaminatiOns at Château de Linardié in Senouillac, France. In 2006
Nechvatal received a retrospective exhibition entitled Contaminations at
the Butler Institute of American Art's Beecher Center for Arts and
Technology.[4]

Dr. Nechvatal has also contributed to digital audio work with his noise
music viral symphOny, a collaborative sound symphony created by using his
computer virus software at the Institute for Electronic Arts at Alfred
University.[22][23] viral symphOny was presented as a part of nOise
anusmOs in New York in 2012.[24] In 2016, a limited edition CD recording of
his sex farce poetry book Destroyer of Naivetés was released on Entr'acte label
under the name of Cave Bacchus. Cave Bacchus is Nechvatal, Black
Sifichi and Rhys Chatham.[25]

In 2013, Nechvatal showed work in Noise, an official collateral show of

the 55th Venice Biennale of Art, that was based on his book Immersion Into
Noise.[26]

From 1999 to 2013, Nechvatal taught art theories of immersive virtual

reality and the viractual at the School of Visual Arts in New York City (SVA).
A book of his collected essays entitled Towards an Immersive Intelligence:
Essays on the Work of Art in the Age of Computer Technology and Virtual
Reality (1993–2006) was published by Edgewise Press in 2009. Also in 2009,
his book Immersive Ideals / Critical Distances was published.[27] In 2011, his
book Immersion Into Noise was published by Open Humanities Press in
conjunction with the University of Michigan Library's Scholarly Publishing
Office.[28] In 2014 he published (as editor) a book and CD/cassette tape with
Punctum Books and Punctum Records on the noise music artist Minóy and in
2015 he published with Punctum Books a collection of his farcical erotic
poetry entitled Destroyer of Naivetés.[29] Since 2013, Nechvatal has regularly
been publishing his art criticism as the Paris correspondent
for Hyperallergic blogazine.[30]

Joe Lewis wrote:

in the artist/theorist tradition of Robert Smithson, Joseph

Nechvatal is a pioneer in the field of digital image making who
challenges our perceptions of nature by altering conventional
notions of space and time, gender, and self. ... Nechvatal
successfully plunged into the depths where art, technology and
theory meet.[31]

Viractualism[edit]
Viractualism is an art theory concept developed by Nechvatal in
1999[32][33][34][35] from the Ph.D. research [36] Nechvatal conducted in the
philosophy of art and new technology concerning immersive virtual
reality at Roy Ascott's Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts
(CAiiA), University of Wales College, Newport, UK (now the Planetary
Collegium at the University of Plymouth). There he developed his concept of
the viractual, which strives to create an interface between the biological and
the virtual.[17] It is central to Nechvatal's work as an artist.[37][38]

Nechvatal suggests that viractualism may be an entrainment/égréore

conception helpful in defining our now third-fused inter-spatiality which is
forged from the meeting of the virtual and the actual.[35] - a concept close to
the military's augmented reality, which is the use of transparent displays worn
as see-through glasses on which computer data is projected and
layered.[39][40]

The basis of the viractual conception is that virtual producing computer

technology has become a noteworthy means for making and
understanding contemporary art and that this brings artists to a place where
one finds the emerging of the computed (the virtual) with the uncomputed
corporeal (the actual).[41] This amalgamate - which tends to contradict some
central techno clichés of our time - is what Nechvatal calls the
viractual.[35] Digitization is a key metaphor for viractuality in the sense that it
is the elementary translating procedure today. Nechvatal thinks that in every
era the attempt must be made anew to wrest the art practice away from
conformisms that are about to overcome it.[42][43]

’Hébert pioneered the creation of conceptual drawings based on original code proofed by
computer-driven devices. He produces algorithmic, lyrical and spiritual works on paper,
on sand and water, visual music and installations. His work has been exhibited
throughout the U.S. and has achieved international recognition. … Hébert has been
awarded a Pollock-Krasner and a David Bermant grant." [Hébert, 2010]
‘He got access to his first small plotter in 1976, which enabled him to make line drawings
and start trying out methods for making geometric patterns. By the end of the decade he
was using the computer as a serious tool for creating and printing art.’ [Apple Science
Profile, 2011]
‘Hébert has coined the word »Algorist« and founded the Algorists group with Charles
Csuri, Manfred Mohr, Ken Musgrave, Roman Verostko, Mark Wilson.’ [Hébert, 2010]
‘The principle behind my work has always been pretty simple,’ Hébert explains. ‘It
consists of putting together a process that creates instructions for a tool. It’s all
computer-driven motion of a tool on a surface.’ [Apple Science Profile, 2011

1959 As an engineering student, Hébert landed a summer job

with IBM and programmed in FORTRAN on the first
commercial computer in Europe.

1989 His first solo-exhibition “Sans lever la plume” was

held at the Galerie Alphonse Chave and presented a
variety of ink-on-paper drawings made with mechanical
plotters.

1970s Working as a consultant in Paris with the very first HP

lab computers and plotters, Hébert began using computers
as tools to create drawings.

2003 He was appointed artist in residence a the Kavli

Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of
California, Santa Barbara.

2006 Hébert was awarded a Pollock-Krasner fellowship.

2008 He received the David Bermant Foundation grant.

1989 IBM Research Center, Marcel Breuer Building, Lobby

Gallery (La Gaude, France).
“Sans lever la plume", Galerie Alphonse Chave (Vence,
France).

2000 “On Lines” DesignArc Gallery (Santa Barbara,

California)

2001 “Traces on Sand and Paper”, Computing Commons Gallery,

Arizona State University (Tempe, Arizona)
“Prints and Drawings” Department of Art & Art History,
curated by Tim High, University of Texas Austin
“Unus Mundus: From the Digital to the Sublime”, El
Camino College Art Gallery, with Victor Raphael, Susanna
Meiers,
Curator (Los Angeles, California).

2002 “Traces on Sand and Paper 2”, Monlleo Gallery (Santa

Barbara, CA).

2003 “Fields on Paper” Kavli Institute for Theoretical

Physics (University of California Santa Barbara)
 “Jean-Pierre Hébert & Victor Raphael: Illuminated
Collaboration”, Karpeles Manuscript Library and Museum
(Santa Barbara, California)

2004 “Plotterzeichnungen” Gallery at the Digital Art

Museum (Mitte District, Berlin, Germany).
“New Works and Works in the KITP Collection”, Kavli
Institute for Theoretical Physics (University of
California Santa Barbara)

2005 “Jean-Pierre Hébert & David Holt: Expanding Reality”,

Barrett Gallery, Santa Monica College (Santa Monica,
California)

2006 “Drawing for the Next Century”, San Luis Obispo Art
Center, (San Luis Obispo, California)

2008 “Jean-Pierre Hébert : Drawing With the Mind”, Santa

Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum (Santa Barbara,
California)
“Improbable Landscapes”, Marcia Burtt Studio (Santa
Barbara, California)

2009 “Jean-Pierre Hébert : Drawings as Thoughts”, SCIArc

Southern California Institute of Architecture (Los
Angeles,
California)

2000 Fondation La Ferthé/ Fondation de France (Paris), grant.

2003 Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UCSB,

Artist in Residence

2005 NY Artists’ Fellowship Grant

2006 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award

2008,2009 David Bermant Foundation Award

George Grie

George Grie (born May 14, 1962) is one of the first digital neo-surrealist artists, well
known for numerous 3D, 2D, and matte painting images. Born in USSR during the
Soviet Union Regime he did not adopt traditional and politically correct socialistic
realism art style, but chose instead to follow the more controversial path of modern
surrealism.

OLGA KISSELEVA
"The artist Olga Kisseleva's approach to her work is much the same as a
scientist's. A discrepancy detected during a procedure or within the workings
of a structure oblige her to formulate a hypothesis, in order to explain the
complication in question, and wherever possible, to propose a solution to the
problem. She then determines the skills necessary to pursue the relative study,
and commissions the research.

The artist calls upon exact sciences, on genetic biology, geophysics, and also on
political and social sciences. She proceeds with her experiments, calculations
and analyses, while strictly respecting the methods of the scientific domain in
question. Her artistic hypothesis is thus verified and approved by a strictly
scientific method.

In each of Olga Kisseleva's projects, at each stage of its development, from the
initial draft (when the context is taken into consideration), until the moment
when the indications allowing the esthetic propositions to come to light are
gathered together, a line is traced upon which the different elements convened
are inscribed. This way of addressing places and people allows the artist to take
on an unusual position, a kind of involvement consisting of questioning,
affronting or testing the elements constituting the reality of a situation in
which she can borrow from numerous mediations, supports and modes of
representation as diverse as the situations hemselves. Yet it still implies, for the
viewer as well as the artist, a certain faithfulness to a watchword - vigilance -
returning to a principle of responsibility, and implying the establishment of
open relationships between the different elements brought into play by esthetic
propositions."

excerpt from the catalogue “Windows”, Musée Marc Chagall, Nice, 2008