IBM Publishing IVX, La Hulpe

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
Price range: $

Sture Johannesson

1990

Silkscreen

Description

This 1990 silkscreen print was created by the artist in collaboration with engineer Sten Kallin at IBM’s La Hulpe research facility in Belgium. Sture Johanesson had spent years working with Kallin on the Fields Program, a technical study of how picture elements coexist in an image through the comparison of differing parameters. Typical of Johannesson’s work with computer graphics in the 1980s and ’90s, this silkscreen print layers textured, contrasting color fields.

To process the rasterization algorithms and image data generated by the Fields Program, Johannesson and Kallin used the digital darkroom and photoprocessing laboratory at the IBM Image Handling Facility. Access to such high-end equipment aided the artist in the creation of new graphic structures. A similarly high-quality printer—the IBM 4250/V Electrocompositor— was used to electronically etch the master plates.