The Algorithmic Artist: A Deep Dive into VENET EVENT
Renowned artist Bernar Venet is pushing the boundaries of digital art with his latest generative collection, VENET EVENT. This groundbreaking series of 500 unique digital artworks is a testament to Venet's lifelong exploration of chance, unpredictability, and the interplay between human creativity and algorithmic processes.
A Digital Renaissance
Sotheby's Gen Art presents VENET EVENT, a long-form generative art collection by visionary conceptual artist Bernar Venet. In Venet's signature style, five hundred algorithmic digital outputs explore the interplay of chance and unpredictability in the digital realm. The collection builds upon his seven-decade practice of probing these themes through sculpture, painting, drawing, poetry, sound, design, and photography.
The Algorithmic Artist
The VENET EVENT Generative Collection is an innovative series of 500 digital artworks crafted through algorithmic processes. Each piece is created at the moment of purchase, guaranteeing collectors a one-of-a-kind, unprecedented artwork. These works initially manifest as animations showing unique collisions of angles, which then crystallize into a final composition. This embodies Venet's exploration of chance and unpredictability in the digital age.
A Master's Digital Canvas
By integrating his systemic approach into blockchain technology, Venet remains committed to revolutionizing art with cutting-edge methods. Blending his sculptural expertise with scientific and mathematical elements, he creates generative pieces that reinterpret his iconic "collapsed angles."
A New Dimension of Art
Influenced by movements like Dada and Minimalism, EVENT employs mathematical randomness as a creative partner, echoing the radical expressionism of his earlier pieces such as Pile of Coal (1963) and Accident (1996). Venet's use of algorithms represents a pivotal shift in his artistic journey, uniting his sculptural intuition with coded logic. His recent performative piece, "EFFONDREMENT D'ARCS," exemplifies this evolution, a generative, non-digital work highlighting the ongoing dialogue between physical and digital generative art.
A Digital Alchemy
Since the mid-1970s, Venet has concentrated on the line motif, developing works centered on geometric forms like angles. This focus is seen in his early conceptual creations, such as the 1976 angles on canvas and the 1979 wooden relief "Position of Three Angles." His more recent sculptures embrace improvisation, often suggesting themes of chaos and collapse, crafted without preparatory sketches to allow meaning to emerge organically from accidental composition.
Chaos and Control
Venet defines collapse as a disruption where order meets an unforeseen EVENT, leading to unpredictability, akin to a "catastrophe," where breakdowns spark new beginnings. For Venet, engaging with algorithms is an essential act of transformation, challenging conventional ideas of materiality and object-oriented creation. He stated, "Code is not used to create forms... It is the form itself." By employing automated systems, Venet critiques traditional compositional constraints, infusing his work with unpredictability and transience, thus challenging the structured order championed by artists like Malevich and Mondrian.
The Future of Art
Through his digital works, Venet advocates for an artistic system that favors connectivity over rigid limitations. He questions the dependence on proportion, construction, and definition, suggesting that the interplay of stability and chaos can yield novel creative insights. This exploration seeks to integrate order and disorder, discovering new horizons in artistic expression.
A Digital Revolution
Bernar Venet, born in Châteax-Arnoux-Saint-Auban in 1941, is a master of art transformation. He moved to New York in 1966, became a long-time US resident, and now resides in Le Muy, France. He opened the Venet Foundation in 2014. His artistic journey began with radical stances in Nice, evolving upon arrival in the US and aligning him with Minimalist and Conceptual art pioneers.
Venet's acclaim spans monumental corten steel sculptures, painting, performance, poetry, sound, design, and photography. His work graces prestigious institutions globally, from Centre Pompidou to MoMA and the Guggenheim, with public commissions across Asia, Europe, and the United States, and global appearances at Versailles and the tallest public artwork in the world, "Arc Majeure" - all testaments to his influence and contributions to the world through his art.
Public Sale Opens on December 5th, 2024 at 2PM EST
Don't miss your chance to own a piece of art history. Sotheby's Gen Art presents VENET EVENT, a groundbreaking collection of generative art by Bernar Venet.
