Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 4: Digital Era (1960s)

1964

23-Ecke by Georg Nees

Artwork · Europe

Twenty rows of fourteen small black line polygons, each formed from horizontal and vertical segments and a closing diagonal, reproduced from Nees's 1964 publication.
Georg Nees, 23-Ecke (1964), reproduced as Bild 2 in his article ‘Variationen von Figuren in der statistischen Grafik,’ Grundlagenstudien aus Kybernetik und Geisteswissenschaft 5, no. 3/4 (December 1964), p. 124. Georg Nees. Original publication: Verlag Schnelle, Quickborn, 1964. Digitized journal: Internet Archive. Image source.

23-Ecke (Polygon of 23 Vertices) is believed to be the pioneer Nees’s first work. It was shown the following year at Computergrafik, the first ever computer art exhibition, organised by Max Bense in Stuttgart. Nees said after seeing this work plotted out by the Graphomat: “Here is something that will not vanish again. Look artists, one can make abstract art en masse! Why should an artist not let himself be helped by the computer?

Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random.

Sources

People

Frieder Nake, Georg Nees, Max Bense

Movements

computer art

Filed under

Ideas
abstraction, generative art
Technologies
computer art, plotter, Plotter Art, Zuse Graphomat Z 64
People
Frieder Nake, Georg Nees, Max Bense
Works
23-Ecke
Exhibitions
Georg Nees: Computergrafik
Places
Stuttgart

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