Between Order and Chaos: The Art of Vera Molnar

Affectionately known as the ‘grande dame’ of digital art, Vera Molnar (1924–2023) was a remarkable artist who began using computers and algorithms long before digital art became mainstream. This talk explores Molnar’s creative practice, which is also the focus of the new V&A display Degrees of Disruption: Vera Molnar and Generative Art. Discover how her early experiments with computer graphics shaped her approach to geometric abstraction and painting, and how she used algorithms to challenge conventional ideas about art. The session looks at Molnar’s playful and rigorous approach to art-making over seven decades. It considers how she turned rules and randomness into powerful tools, and why her ideas continue to resonate with artists exploring the creative possibilities of machines, systems, and chance.

About Melanie Lenz:
Melanie Lenz is curator of Digital Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum where she is responsible for developing the V&A’s digital art collections. Focusing on the critical intersection of art practice and emergent technologies, she has curated multiple exhibitions and led on a broad range of public programmes including co-developing the V&A’s Digital Art Season. Melanie is co-editor of the forthcoming publication Emergence: Art and Generative Systems 1960-Today and previously co-edited the V&A book Digital Art: 1960 to Now (2024).

Photograph by François Molnar © Succession Vera Molnar