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

1968

Kleiner Sonnenuntergang (Small Sunset) by Dieter Roth

Artwork

Dieter Roth's Kleiner Sonnenuntergang: a slice of sausage pressed between white and blue paper, its oils bleeding outward over decades into a halo like a sun setting over water.
Dieter Roth's Kleiner Sonnenuntergang: a slice of sausage pressed between white and blue paper, its oils bleeding outward over decades into a halo like a sun setting over water. Dieter Roth, Kleiner Sonnenuntergang (Small Sunset), 1968. Smith College Museum of Art.

This important example in the history of chance in art and material generative art was created with perishable, common materials that were meant to decay over time, such as paper and foodstuffs. The decomposition of the piece and the chance transformation it produced served as a substitute for the creative control of the artist’s hand.

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

Sources

People

Dieter Roth

Movements

Chance Art, generative art

Filed under

Ideas
chance, Chance Art, control, generative art, impermanence, Material Generative Art, materiality
People
Dieter Roth
Works
Kleiner Sonnenuntergang (Small Sunset)

Echoes across time

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