V era Molnár, considered by many scholars and historians to be the world’s first female digital artist, began her career in the mid-1940s. Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1924, Molnár started creating art at eight years old and went on to obtain BFAs in both Art History and Aesthetics at the Budapest College of Fine Arts. In 1947, Molnár moved to Paris, France where she was mentored by Sonia Delaunay, and became the co-founder of important French experimental groups, including Groupe de Recherche and Art et Informatique. In 2007 she was named a Chevalier of Arts and Letters in France and this year is one of the 213 artists exhibiting in the 59th Venice Biennale.

Molnár, also known by her maiden name, Gaks Vera or GV, had already established a body of conventional work when she began creating computer art. She continues to utilize traditional media as well as and as part of her digital pieces to the present day. Inspired by Mondrian, Malevich and the concrete art movement, curators have also compared her work to Cézanne’s. Molnar acknowledges a passion for “exact science and mathematics” with “a hint of disorder” in her constructivist computations. A question about her is now included on the French baccalauréat exam.

Molnár’s art was exhibited in some of the most prestigious museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Her works are also in the public collection of the Morgan Library and Museum in New York, Musée Nationale d’Art Moderne in Paris, and the Kunsthalle Bremen in Germany. Now 98 years old, the artist continues to live and work in Paris.

We are exceptionally pleased to offer a rare early plotter-based work, 1% de désordre (1% disorder), which is emblematic of Molnar’s computer-based works and echoes her genesis NFT, also offered in this auction. The composition is randomly generated on the basis of 250 squares (5 columns x 5 rows of 10 squares) of which the computer randomly selects 3 squares that will not be printed. Simple, elegant and aesthetically effective. The works of this series, representative of Molnar’s long-term systems approach, appear rarely on the market.