CENTURY by Casey Reas

Released as the so-called “Generative Art Summer” on Art Blocks was just beginning, the six-month stretch in the middle of 2021 marked a turning point. Interest and sales in generative art reached levels never seen before. What would have seemed unimaginable just a few months earlier peaked in late August 2021. CENTURY, a body of work Reas began in 2012, paid homage to 20th-century art movements, particularly inspired by Ellsworth Kelly’s 1950s works. Reas’s creation draws on concrete and non-objective art, color-field painting, and minimalism, the systems-thinking precursors to the Conceptual movement of the ’60s and ’70s that link directly to generative art’s history and are discussed in chapters 4 and 5. CENTURY as a series consisted of work that appeared to be “cut” and "reassembled” with viewer keyboard inputs, echoing Kelly’s practice of rearranging his paintings yet showcasing the ability of the digital to include interactivity. The collection is designed to be viewed on large screens and in motion, emphasizing its infinitely animating live code capabilities.