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

1961

Grand tir–séance Galerie J by Niki de Saint Phalle

Artwork · Women Artists

A tall white plaster assemblage streaked with blue, yellow and red paint, with embedded objects and a metal fragment extending at the lower right.
Niki de Saint Phalle, Tir, 1961. Assemblage made during Feu à volonté at Galerie J, Paris, June 1961. © Niki Charitable Art Foundation / Adagp, Paris. Photograph: Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI / Audrey Laurans / Dist. GrandPalaisRmn (4Y16583). Collection Centre Pompidou, AM 2004-39. Image source.

This convention-defying work of chance art saw Saint Phalle create an assemblage of white, found objects, surrounded by sacks of colored paint. She would then fire a rifle at the paint sacks to explosively create the work. A fascinating example of the ingenuity and breadth of generative art, the rifle plays a decisive role in the system that ultimately creates the art and could thus be considered an autonomous system.

Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.

Sources

People

Niki de Saint Phalle

Movements

Chance Art, generative art, Material Generative Art

Filed under

Ideas
autonomy, chance, Chance Art, generative art, Material Generative Art, performance
People
Niki de Saint Phalle
Works
Assemblage, Grand tir–séance Galerie J
Organisations
Galerie J

Echoes across time

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