Generative Art: The Legacy of Harold Cohen and Vera Molnar

By Robert P. Fine

*Harold Cohen at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1979. Image credit: Harold Cohen Estate*

What follows are some of my impressions of that history based on my various readings and digging around on the internet as I have pursued my art making and coding over the past five years. These impressions, in no way, purport to be complete or academically rigorous and should not be mistaken for being so.

Harold Cohen, Vera Molnar and others, were unique in that their initial entry into the developmental world of art and computers was as artists with a vision, not as scientists and academics whose goal it was to build the field of computer science.

Independently of the effort of this small group of artists, a vanguard of academics and researchers not directly interested in the fine arts were writing seminal papers describing algorithms and techniques which would soon constitute the foundation of the new field of 3D computer graphics. It consisted of highly technical academic types who had a strong intellectual commitment to computational thinking and mathematics, and also a vision of the broad impact that what they were working on would have on other scientific fields and commercial endeavors.

The development of key algorithms related to lighting and 3D rendering was part of this vanguard and had in fact begun as early as the 1970’s. However, their actual implementation into usable code would have to wait a few years. The first papers on the theory and implementation of ray tracing, were viewed as ingenious but impractical given the severely limited capacity of processors at that time. The theory of three dimensional rendering required that the color of each pixel be calculated independently from all the other pixels in an array. For a 5000 by 5000 pixel array, that meant 25 million independent color calculations. This number increased exponentially when taking into account that each ray hitting an object in a scene would then bounce around a set number of times to sample colors from nearby scene objects. So it was not until PCs and multi-core processors were developed and began to proliferate that these algorithms became the key part of the graphics workflow.

As the computer graphics industry rapidly developed at the end of the 20th century, the focus placed on generating unique, stylistic drawings with a strong artistic intent diminished significantly. From a resource perspective, attention was now focused on either purely academic research or commercial endeavors. The focus of programmers and researchers turned to producing real time animation for the gaming industry and photo realistic special effects for Hollywood and the advertising industry.

The legacy of Cohen and Molnar and others like them passed to the Generative Art movement. This movement grew out of the development of a free, open source function library and integrated development environment developed in 2001 by Casey Reas and Ben Fry called “Processing”. The functions work in conjunction with the Java language. It allows users to access functions directly that will draw lines and shapes, add color to them, as well as other more complicated routines. It allows artists with basic programming skills to more easily create computer art than if they had to code each function from scratch.

*Vera Molnar in 1961. Image Credit: Courtesy of Galerie Oniris Rennes*

Robert P. Fine is a contemporary American artist known for his code-based work that draws inspiration from pioneering computer artists like Harold Cohen and Vera Molnar. His art distinguishes itself through its largely representational style, incorporating naturalistic three-dimensional scenes.

Fine utilizes recursive techniques to create objects such as trees and branching systems, while also employing algorithms that simulate light transport, resulting in a textured interplay of colors and shadows reminiscent of Seurat’s pointillism. Fine's work highlights the ongoing evolution of Western art and invites viewers to reflect on its continuous narrative.

Read our interview with Bob to learn more about his art, creative process, and inspirations.