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Amsterdam Suite A
Cohen, Harold, born 1928 - Enlarge image
Amsterdam Suite A
- Object:
Print
- Place of origin:
USA, USA (made)
- Date:
1977 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Cohen, Harold, born 1928 (artist)
- Materials and Techniques:
Lithograph, from a computer-generated drawing
- Credit Line:
Given by Harold Cohen
- Museum number:
E.328-2009
- Gallery location:
Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C, case MB2E, shelf DR84
Cohen trained as a painter and represented Britain at the 1966 Venice Biennale. In 1968 he became a visiting professor at the University of California at San Diego, where he was introduced to computer programming. In 1971 Cohen took up a post as visiting scholar in the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Stanford University. While at the Artificial Intelligence Lab, he began developing a computer program called Aaron, in which he sought to codify the act of drawing.
This is one of a series of prints that Cohen created for a one-man show at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1977-8. At the time, his Aaron computer program was only able to produce monochrome line-drawings. However, the V&A also holds a hand-coloured drawing of the same image, dated 1982 (E.327-2009). According to the artist, the image created in 1977 was subsequently hand-coloured, then signed and dated by him in 1982.
In the exhibition, Cohen also exhibited his "turtle", a computer-controlled drawing device that moved around on top of a large sheet of paper. The "turtle" was popular with museum visitors, but Cohen decided to retire it soon afterwards.
