Untitled (punch cards)

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
Price range: $

Monique Nahas Hervé Huitric

1972

Painting

15.75"x12.5"
IBM 80-column computer punch cards mounted on birch ply, overpainted with acrylic

Highlights

Description

Using IBM 80-column computer punch cards as both surface and stencil, Monique Nahas replicated the pixelated abstractions typically achieved by computer screens. Instead of working on a palette, Nahas considered color as a set of percentages. Her approach was highly influenced by the work of Pointillist painters such as Georges Seurat (1859–1891), who made use of optical mixing and simultaneous contrast when distributing tonal variations.

This particular work layers punch cards that were programmed in a coded sequence and then painted using a roller. Punch cards were widely used in the 20th century for the input, output, and storage of digital data. Nahas was one of the earliest artists in France to make use of computers. In 1969 she cofounded the Groupe Art et Informatique de Vincennes, which explored the new aesthetic possibilities emerging from digital tools.