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

1972

Surface Substitution on 36 Plates by Jennifer Bartlett

Artwork

Jennifer Bartlett's Surface Substitution on 36 Plates (1972), the full six-by-six array of enamelled steel plates, each silkscreened with a grey grid and filled with hand-painted dots in a sequence driven by the Fibonacci series.
Jennifer Bartlett's Surface Substitution on 36 Plates (1972), the full six-by-six array of enamelled steel plates, each silkscreened with a grey grid and filled with hand-painted dots in a sequence driven by the Fibonacci series. Jennifer Bartlett, Surface Substitution on 36 Plates, 1972. Tate, London (T06637). © Estate of Jennifer Bartlett.

This important work in both math and chance in art demonstrates how algorithmic approaches to material art could produce visually interesting patterns based on numbers.

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

Sources

People

Jennifer Bartlett

Movements

Math Art

Filed under

Ideas
chance, Chance Art, Material Generative Art, mathematics
Technologies
algorithms, Math Art
People
Jennifer Bartlett
Works
Surface Substitution on 36 Plates

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