Georg Nees (German, 1926–2016) Untitled (9.2.1988), 1988
Fine art print after the 1988 computer-generated original
21 × 20 cm
Collection of Bre Pettis
PION.2025.013
Description
An error on the road to Runge. On February 9, 1988, Georg Nees printed an attempt at translating Philipp Otto Runge's 1810 color sphere into computed form and sent it to the collector Wolfgang Schneider, annotated in his own hand: "The aim was to create a variant of Runge’s colour sphere. Error: sphere was torn into hemispheres, colour distribution is incorrect." Nees, retired from Siemens, was then teaching himself the first color desktop printers — an Okimate 20, then an HP Paintjet, driven from an Atari — and treated programming errors as raw material, "creative coincidence" he collected and later exhibited (Zufall als Prinzip, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, 1992). The DAM Museum, which represents the Nees estate, documents this image and its February 10 (PION.2025.014) companion as the pair "Works from February 9–10, 1988"; the estate treats both as untitled, so the date is the title. This impression carries no handwriting: it is a later fine-art print of the 1988 image, not the annotated sheet Nees posted to Schneider.
Checked by the owner in August 2026: neither sheet carries Nees's handwriting, confirming that these are the later fine-art prints rather than the annotated sheets sent to Schneider.
Sources: https://dam.org/museum/artists_ui/artists/nees-georg/works-from-february-9-10-1988/