Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 5: Artist-Programmer Era (1970s)

1977

Harold Cohen Exhibits AARON at the Stedelijk Museum

Exhibition · Europe · Top Moment

Harold Cohen's Amsterdam Suite A, an AARON drawing from the body of work shown at the Stedelijk Museum, held by the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Harold Cohen's Amsterdam Suite A, an AARON drawing from the body of work shown at the Stedelijk Museum, held by the Victoria and Albert Museum. Harold Cohen, Amsterdam Suite A. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London / Harold Cohen

Now referred to as his “turtle,” AARON was showcased in a one-person show at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam across 1977 and 1978. At the exhibition the turtle would roam around drawing while viewers could see finished pieces on display such as the Amsterdam Suite, prints from which are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. AARON was only capable of drawing in black and white at this time. Cohen would hand paint AARON drawings later in the 1980s. This exhibition also serves as an exception to the general disregard shown to computer art by the mainstream art world in this decade.

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

Sources

People

Harold Cohen

Movements

generative art

Filed under

Ideas
drawing, generative art, institutional recognition
Technologies
artificial intelligence, computer art, drawing machine, robotics
People
Harold Cohen
Works
AARON, Amsterdam Suite
Organisations
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)
Places
Amsterdam, Netherlands

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