Beasts in a Field

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
Price range: $

Grace C. Hertlein

1970

Plotter Drawing

Female Pioneer

Description

Beasts in a Field by Grace C. Hertlein is one of the earliest computer-generated artworks to combine machine plotting with overlays in traditional media. It belongs to “The Creation Series,” which reimagined prehistoric plant and animal forms through code, and was part of Hertlein’s broader practice of using the computer to merge geometric systems with organic imagery.

Programmed in Fortran IV and drawn with a microfilm plotter, Beasts in a Field layers randomized patterns of tree fern and pine with a setting sun. Hertlein printed the beasts on a separate acetate sheet so they would sit above the forest and sun, creating a three-dimensional effect.

At a time when many artists were exploring abstract patterns and geometry in computer art, Hertlein introduced the figurative, showing that programmed graphics could produce recognizable forms.