Vera Molnar

Vera Molnar

The basic elements of my work are simple geometrical shapes: squares, rectangles and their transformations. Already at the Beaux-Arts I used them to the great consternation of my master, a wise and tidy "fauve" painter. The reasons for my choice and my fidelity are multiple.

The first is emotional; I feel an irresistible attraction to the crystalline purity of elementary forms and the transparency of the constructions they can generate. This geometric visual world perhaps has for me the psychological role of counteracting the vagueness, the uncertainty, the ignorance in which man is immersed.

The second reason for my choice is less emotional. All pictorial activity is based on the idea that the juxtaposition of coloured forms on a surface sometimes makes it possible to obtain a particular arrangement which is something other than a banal juxtaposition of banal forms. This privileged visual situation, which makes a portion of a surface moving, is called art. The use of elementary and standardised forms allows us to control the genesis of the image step by step and to try to locate the moment when the "art fact" emerges. To track down this unknown with the help of a clear approach, the computer is a very appropriate tool.

The use of geometric forms is justified for another reason: their presence in the painting dissuades the viewer from projecting all sorts of literary or symbolic interpretations onto it, from "putting notes under my verses" as Victor Hugo feared.

However, we must face reality. No scientific data, no experimental results have yet proved that what is regular is beautiful and that what is beautiful is art. We should not be too quick to settle into the religion of simplicity, nor should we indulge in voluptuous aesthetic introspection by blissfully making ocular chewing gum.

Geometric art can indeed lead to various mystics, of which the history of art knows many examples, but it can also take the diametrically opposite direction: that of the exact sciences. The chosen pictorial material being easy to manipulate, it can encourage rigorous experimentation and thus transform the enlightened artist into an art researcher.

Not inclined to mystical devotion and curious by nature, I took up the challenge and deliberately chose this second path.

Vera Molnar, April 1986

Public collections (Selection)

l’INHA - l’Institut national d’histoire de l’art (INHA), France

La Fondation Pernod Ricard, France

Museum of Modern Art, New York (MOMA)

The National Gallery of Art, USA

The Morgan Library, USA

Museum Haus Konstruktive, Zürich

Galerie Nationale, Budapest, Hongrie

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Budapest, Hongrie

Bibliothèque Nationale, Zagreb

Worcester Art Museum, Mass, USA

Universita Degli Studi Macerata, Italie

FRAC Poitou-Charentes, France

Université de Paris I, Sorbonne, Prédidence

Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

Museum Wroclaw, Pologne

Fondation Camille, Paris

Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris

Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden, Dresde, Allemagne

Musée Municipal, Cholet, France

Carré Estampes, Luxembourg, L

Stiftung für Konkrete Kunst, Reutlingen, Allemagne

Bibliothèque Nationale de Tokyo, Japon

Hochschule für bildende Künste, Saar, Allemagne

Sammlung E, Musée d’Ottendorf, Allemagne

Musée de la Peinture, Grenoble, France

Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts, Norwich. GB

Wilhelm-Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen, Allemagne

Forum Konkrete Kunst, Erfurt, Allemagne

FRAC Bretagne, France

Artothèque Lyon, France

Artothèque la Roche sur Yon, France

Artothèque Annecy, France

Artothèque Miramas, Marseille, France

Musée de Rennes, France

FRAC Nord/Pas de Calais, France

Mondrianhuis, Amersfort, Hollande

Musée Xantus, Györ, Hongrie

Musée de Calasetta, Italie

Musée National d’Art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

Musée Kassak, Budapest, Hongrie

Musée Sztuki, Lodz, Pologne

Collection Vass, Budapest, Hongrie

Collection Centre d’Art Bouvet-Ladubay, Saumur, France

Collection Hoppe-Ritter, Waldenbuch, Allemagne

Collection Ruppert, Würzburg, Allemagne

Musée de Rouen, France

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Brest, France

Musée d’Art contemporain, Paks, Hongrie

Kunsthalle Bremen, Allemagne

The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, Budapest, Hongrie

FRAC Lorraine, France

Victoria and Albert Museum, Londres, UK

Stiftung für Konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt, Allemagne