Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 6: Personal Computer Era (1980s)
1989
Jenny Holzer at the Guggenheim in New York
Digital art was slowly becoming more mainstream as some of the biggest names in contemporary art experimented with the mechanical. One example was the neo-conceptualist Jenny Holzer. Her 1989 to 1990 exhibition at the Guggenheim was a site-specific LED installation that spiraled up the parapet of the museum’s Frank Lloyd Wright-designed rotunda.
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.
Sources
People
Frank Lloyd Wright, Jenny Holzer
Movements
digital art
Filed under
- Ideas
- conceptual art, digital art, Installation Art, institutional recognition, language, neo-conceptualism, site specificity
- Technologies
- LEDs
- People
- Frank Lloyd Wright, Jenny Holzer
- Organisations
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
- Places
- New York
Echoes across time
- 2005 · Atom by Christopher Bauder and Robert Henke
- 1969 · Computerkunst - On the Eve of Tomorrow Exhibition in Hanover
- 1969 · Kunst Und Computer Exhibition at Vienna Sparkasse
Le Random editorials
- Sasha Stiles and Martha Joseph on Language as Technology, Peter Bauman, September 10, 2025
- Trevor Paglen on Technological Points of View, Peter Bauman, October 7, 2024
- Sasha Stiles on Writing Poets, Peter Bauman, January 25, 2024
Le Random podcast
- Jared Madere on Yeche Lange, VVV & the Solana Avant Scene's Impact—with Peter Bauman & Conrad House — listen with transcript on Le Random (10 Oct 2025, 105 min). Transcript mentions Jenny Holzer. Apple Podcasts · Spotify
- Timeline Ch 6—Personal Computer Era (1980s) with Mark Wilson, Copper Giloth, Dan Sandin, David Em, William Latham, Stephen Todd, Darcy Gerbarg & Geoff Davis — listen with transcript on Le Random (08 Feb 2024, 85 min). Chapter 6’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify