MANFRED MOHR

Early Years and Education

Mohr’s artistic journey began with studies in painting and goldsmithing at the Kunst und Werkschule in Pforzheim in 1957. His early work was heavily influenced by abstract expressionism and his passion for jazz music, which he pursued professionally as a saxophonist. Mohr hails from a family of musicians, and he credits this immersion in music, and later jazz, to honing his abstract and improvisational way of thinking and working. In 1962, he relocated to Barcelona, earning a living as a musician before moving to Paris in 1963 to study lithography at the École des Beaux-Arts. He moved to New York in 1981, where he still lives and works.

How did Mohr incorporate computers into his work?

Max Bense’s writings on information aesthetics profoundly impacted Mohr, steering him toward a more rational and systematic approach to art and abstraction. In 1967, he met Pierre Barbaud, a pioneer in computer-generated music, who further influenced Mohr to experiment with computers and programming in his pursuit of systems-based artmaking. By 1969, Mohr created artworks using computer algorithms, marking a significant departure from traditional artistic methods.

Artistic practice and notable works

Mohr was a pioneer of using computers to create art. He taught himself programming in 1969 and used a CDC 6400 computer at the Paris Météorologie nationale algorithms to explore abstraction and the complexities of interdimensionality. His early computer-generated pieces focused on rhythm and repetition, reflecting his musical background.

In the 1970s, he began an in-depth exploration of the cube and hypercube structures, leading to works such as Cubic Limit (1973) and Divisibility (1980–84). These works explore the visual representation of four-dimensional and higher-dimensional objects, challenging perceptions of space and form. ​

Exhibitions and retrospectives

Mohr’s groundbreaking contributions have been showcased worldwide in numerous solo exhibitions and retrospectives. Notably, in 1971, a solo exhibition of the artist’s work was shown at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Precognisedgnized as the first museum exhibition featuring entirely computer-generated works. Other significant solo exhibitions include:

• Manfred Mohr: broken symmetry / Computer Works 1969 - 2007, Kunsthalle Bremen (24 April–1 July 2001).
• Der Algorithmus des Manfred Mohr, 1963- Present, ZKM | Media Museum in Karlsruhe (8 June–Sun September 2013).
• Manfred Mohr, A Formal Language: Celebrating 50 Years of Artwork and Algorithms, bitforms gallery, New York (7 September–3 November 2019).

What awards has Manfred Mohr won?

Throughout his career, Mohr has received numerous accolades, reflecting his status as a leading figure in digital art. In 1990, he was awarded the prestigious Golden Nica at the Ars Electronica festival in Linz, Austria. He also received the Camille Graeser Prize in Zürich the same year. In 2006, he was honored with the d.velop digital art award [ddaa] in Cologne for his pioneering work. In 2013, he received the ACM SIGGRAPH Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in Digital Art.

Collections

Mohr’s works are part of numerous prestigious public collections, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, ZKM | Media Museum in Karlsruhe, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. ​

Website

More about Manfred Mohr’s work can be found on his official website. He can also be found on Instagram.

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Hazel Ellis| 2025