Inspired by Dürer’s etching “Melancolia”, Vera Molnar continuously interrogates a square filled with numbers of which the sum never changes. She appropriates it and attempts to reveal its secrets.
Vera Molnar - Genèse d'un carré magique
Inspired by Dürer’s etching “Melancolia”, Vera Molnar continuously interrogates a square filled with numbers of which the sum never changes. She appropriates it and attempts to reveal its secrets.
A 1514 etching by Dürer named « Melancholy » represents a magical square that Vera Molnar discovered when she was a child. Composed by numbers from 1 to 16, disposed on 4 lines and 4 columns, the magical square has a particularity: the sum of every column, line and diagonal is equal to 34.
Since her childhood, the artist has never stopped interrogating that mysterious object and playing with it, in her art. This way, she tries to reveal the many surprises that the square holds for those who try to discover its secrets.
Genesis of the magical square is a tribute to Dürer, 500 years after he created his etching. The sixteen numbers are bound according to a precise sequence, each step binding a number to the next one: from the first to the second, then the first to the second and third etc. until the first is bound to the sixteenth.
In this sequence, the artist offers two variations: at each step, the drawing that appears is moved 45 degrees and the lines get thinner and thinner.
The magical square still has secrets to reveal!
Data sheet
- Size
- 200 x 33 cm
- Justification
- Edition limitée à 1é exemplaires avec certificat numéroté et signé
- Technique
- Sérigraphie sur aluminium anodisé avec châssis
Molnar (Véra)
Born 1924 (5th January) in Vera Gacs, Budapest. Lives and works in Paris as well as in Normandy
1942-47 studied painting and for a diploma in art history and aesthetics at the Budapest College of Fine Arts. 1946 first non-representational images are created. 1947 artists′ fellowship in Rome at the Villa Julia moved to France. 1947-60 occasional co-operation with François Molnar. 1948 marriage to François Molnar. 1959-68 works with the machine imaginaire method. 1960 Co-founder of the Groupe de Recherche d′Art Visuel (GRAV) first participation in an exhibition organized by her friend Max Bill with the title Konkrete Kunst (Concrete Art) in Zurich, Helmhaus. 1967 Co-founder of the Group Art et Informatique at the Parisian Institut d′Esthétique et des Sciences de l′Art. 1968 first computer graphics are designed: thereafter continuous work with the computer. 1976 development of the "Molnart" computer software programme jointly with her husband first single exhibition Transformations at the gallery of the London Polytechnic. 1979 works at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, at the Atelier de Recherche des Techniques Avancées (ARTA). 1980 member of the Centre deRecherche Expérimentale et Informatique des Arts Visuels(CREIAV) at the Université de Paris I, Sorbonnethe first artist′s book 1% de désordre is published by Wedgepress & Cheese in Bjerred (Sweden). 1985-90 lectureship in fine arts and aesthetics and art history at the Université de Paris I, Sorbonne. 1990 her works are on display at major European exhibitions on non-representational art and avantgarde the first installative work is created for the Foundation of Concrete Art, Reutlingen . 1999 large monographic exhibition Extrait de 100 000 milliards de lignes at the Centre de Recherche, d′Échange et de Diffusion pour l′Art Contemporain (CRÉDAC) in Ivry-sur-Seine. 2005 recipient of the first d.velop digital art award [ddaa] for her life′s work, organised annually by the Digital Art Museum [DAM] and honoured with an individual exhibition by the Kunsthalle Bremen
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