Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 3: Analog Era (1950s)

1959

Vera Molnár Develops Her Machine Imaginaire

Invention · Europe · Top Moment · Women Artists

Square composition of black vertical, horizontal, and diagonal line segments distributed across a pale field.
Vera Molnár, Quatre éléments distribués au hasard, 1959. Graphite and adhesive plastic film on cardboard. © Adagp, Paris. Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, AM 2008-189. Photograph: Georges Meguerditchian / Dist. GrandPalaisRmn. Image source.

Meaning the “imaginary computer,” Molnár’s “machine imaginaire” is the now famous concept that she developed to imagine a computer to expand her creative process. The hypothetical machine allowed her to systematically create works that included all the possible combinations of forms she wished. Now based in Paris, It would take nearly another decade, 1968, before Molnár would gain access to an actual computer.

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

Sources

People

Vera Molnár

Movements

generative art

Filed under

Ideas
combinatorics, generative art
People
Vera Molnár
Works
la Machine Imaginaire
Places
Paris

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