Why Love Generative Art? by Jason Bailey on Artnome

2018, the year many threads from our long story spark an inferno after what in some ways can be seen as a flickering light, vascilating between the frenzied and nearly extinguished. While many developments that we’ll cover throughout the year led to this article, the article itself deserves a special spot for its continued use as a source and citation for explaining and introducing newcomers to generative art.

In August, 2018, before Autoglyphs or Art Blocks, Artnome’s essay did more than explain the movement of generative art to the first generation financially and technology capable of collecting it with ease. It also introduced this new generation of art collectors to Manolo, Casey Reas, Vera Molnár, Jared Tarbell and Muriel Cooper.

Kate Vass spoke to this author (Peter Bauman) about the relevance of the article to her, asking him to curate 2019’s Automat und Mensch:

“It was a wonderful opportunity because nobody was really interested in highlighting this history and the protagonists of the movement. I spoke to Georg and, of course, we all read the fantastic “Why Love Generative Art?” by Jason Bailey that inspired many to collect. It’s a wonderful thing when one good intention leads to many more and to people falling in love with art. Jason was already known as a contributor to this scene and Georg would not stop talking about him so our mutual willingness was to get Jason on board. Georg spoke to Jason and asked if he would be interested. Then we jumped on a call and everybody discussed it and said, “How can we do it and who is responsible for what?” We split the responsibility, with Georg mostly focusing on the historical pioneering part and Jason responsible for bringing in contemporary artists.”