Hanne Darboven Begins Her Number Constructions

German artist Hanne Darboven's works of manual systems and numeric thinking in art recall Vera Molnár's machine imaginaire or Charles Csuri's "After Artist" series, pre-computational work that is clearly cognizant of computation.

Working in New York from 1966, Darboven began her Konstruktionen, drawings on graph paper built from systems of numbers. She soon based them on the calendar, adding the digits of each date to produce a sum she then wrote out by hand across page after page.

The results, often filling hundreds of sheets, are records of time counted and written rather than pictures. They are the artifacts of rules and math rather than the divine hand. Darboven worked alongside Sol LeWitt and New York's conceptual art scene, solidifying the connection between rules and conceptualism.