Harold Cohen (British, 1928–2016) Arnolfini plotter drawings, 1 of 2, 1983
plotter drawing / Ink on Paper
57 × 76 cm
Signed and dated
Collection of Bre Pettis
PION.2018.016
Description
One of a pair of ink drawings generated by AARON, the rule-based drawing program Harold Cohen began developing around 1970, and executed in black ink by a computer-driven pen plotter of Cohen's own construction. It dates from 1983, AARON's most public year, when Cohen mounted solo exhibitions at the Tate Gallery, the Arnolfini in Bristol( *this one is from that exhibit), the National Museum of Wales, and the Brooklyn Museum, with AARON-driven drawing machines producing unique sheets live before visitors. Work of this period belongs to AARON's quasi-figurative phase: dense, freehand-looking line drawings of closed biomorphic forms that suggest rocks and plant life without depicting them, made before the program learned to draw explicit figures.
Sources: https://www.aleator.press/shop/p/cohen-at-the-tate-2 · https://gazelliarthouse.com/artists/harold-cohen/biography/ · https://computerhistory.org/blog/harold-cohen-and-aaron-a-40-year-collaboration/