06.11.2026 – 07.02.2027
Otto Beckmann (1908–1997), a pioneer of computer art, began developing his initial ideas on artistic design based on mathematical methods as early as the late 1940s, with his main focus on the practical application of algorithms. In the mid-1960s, as part of an international movement comprising scientists and artists in equal measure, Beckmann discovered the computer as an artistic tool. Even before he used his own ‘studio computer’ – specially designed for artistic work – to create his characteristic computer sculptures, graphics and short films, he had, from 1966 onwards, been creating his ‘verbal block montages’ or ‘word figures’ – computer-based poetry created using so-called ‘autopoems’, which the linguist Gerhard Stickel generated at the German Computing Centre in Darmstadt, effectively as a by-product of his work there in the field of computer-aided word processing. The exhibition, curated by Peter Peer, showcases Beckmann’s exploration of the possibilities offered by the computer for both the visual arts and poetry, in which formal-logical and artistically intuitive creative approaches are combined.
Otto Beckmann – Autopoems
06.11.2026 – 07.02.2027
Neue Galerie
Joanneumsviertel
8010 Graz
www.neuegaleriegraz.at
