Apr 16, 2015 10:39 AM

The New Tendencies computer art scene of the early 1960s

*Who the heck were all these Italians showing up in Zagreb?

http://monoskop.org/New_Tendencies#Publications

New Tendencies
During the period 1961-1973, five international exhibitions were organized under the title New Tendencies. They continued the development of ideas raised by Exat 51 during the 1950s, and formed part of the broader European post-informel art movement in the 1960s and 70s.

Contents [hide]
Exhibitions
Nove tendencije - New Tendencies, 1961
Nove tendencije 2 - New Tendencies 2, 1963
Nova tendencija 3 - New Tendency 3, 1965
Tendencije 4 - Tendency 4, 1968-69
Tendencije 4, Nove tendencije 4 - Tendencies 4, New Tendency 4, 1969
Tendencije 5 - Tendencies 5, 1973
Colloquia, symposia
Image documentation
Darko Fritz on NT
Retrospective exhibitions
Publications
Catalogues
Literature
Monographs
Book chapters, articles and theses
Other articles

Links
Commencing with the 1961 exhibition of concrete and constructive art Nove tendencije in Zagreb, the New Tendencies developed into a dynamic movement dedicated to visual research. Around the mid-1960s, the New Tendencies triggered an international Op-Art-boom, which was endorsed by participation in an exhibition entitled The Responsive Eye, at the New York MoMA, in 1965. However, success brought the New Tendencies no closer to its aims: the assertion of 'art as research' and the establishment of new forms of distribution beyond the art market, which should be accessible to everyman. The organizers of the New Tendencies decided to bring their strategy up-to-date and, in the summer of 1968, initiated in the context of the fourth exhibition, Tendencije 4, the program 'Computer and Visual Research'. In 1968 the movement decided to incorporate into its program the computer as a medium of artistic work so as to thereby assert its avantgarde claim and to contribute to the definition of a technology which, as one quite rightly presumed, would define the future of civilization. Until 1973 the supporting institution of the New Tendencies, the former Gallery of Contemporary Art Zagreb – today the Museum of Contemporary Art – had dedicated itself to artistic research by computer with a series of international exhibitions and symposia. At the peak of the Cold War artists and scientists throughout the world presented their work in Zagreb. The New Tendencies thus established a unique platform for the exchange of ideas and experiences from the area of art, the natural sciences and engineering. With the multi-lingual journal Bit international (1968-73, 9 numbers) Zagreb became a point of initiation for aesthetics and media-theoretical thought.

The organizers of NT initially sought to consciously accompany and form the historical transition in which the computer was perceived as medium of artistic creation. They set computer generated works in relation to Constructive and Kinetic Art (1968/69) and to Concept Art (1973). The arts of the electronic media were not considered as an isolated phenomenon but rather incorporated into the history and discourse of fine-and performing arts. (Source)

Exhibitions[edit]
Nove tendencije - New Tendencies, 1961[edit]
Exhibition, Galerija suvremene umjetnosti, Gallery for Contemporary Art, Zagreb, 3 August – 14 September 1961.

Participating artists: Marc Adrian [AT] Alberto Biasi [IT] Enrico Castellani [IT] Ennio Chiggio [IT] Andreas Christen [CH] Toni Costa [IT] Piero Dorazio [IT] Karl Gerstner [CH] Gerard von Graevenitz [DE] Rudolf Kämmer [DE] Julije Knifer [HR (YU)] Edoardo Landi [IT] Julio Le Parc [AR/FR] Heinz Mack [DE] Piero Manzoni [IT] Manfredo Massironi [IT] Almir Mavignier [BR/DE] François Morellet [FR] Gotthart Müller [DE] Herbert Oehm [DE] Ivan Picelj [HR (YU)] Otto Piene [DE] Uli Pohl [DE] Dieter Rot [DE] Joël Stein [FR] Paul Talman [CH] Günther Uecker [DE] Marcel Wyss [CH] Walter Zehringer [DE].

More on the website of ZKM.

Nova tendencija 3 - New Tendency 3, 1965[edit]
Exhibition, Galerija suvremene umjetnosti, Muzej za umjetnost i obrt, Gallery for Contemporary Art, Museum for Art and Work, Zagreb, 13 August – 3 October 1965.

Participating artists: Marc Adrian [AT] Getulio Alviani [IT] Anonima Group (Ernst Benkert [US], Francis Hewitt [US], Edwin Mieczkowski [US]) Marina Apollonio [IT] Marianne Aue [NL] Hartmut Böhm [DE] Bonies (Bob Niewenhuis) [NL] Martha Boto [AR/FR] Gruppo Di Ricerca Cibernetica [IT] Inge Claus-Jansen [DE] Waldemar Cordeiro [IT/BR] Ivan Čižmek [HR (YU)] Dadamaino [IT] Juraj Dobrović [HR (YU)] Dvizheniye (Vladimir Petrovič Galkin Francisco Arana Infante Georgij Ivanovič Lopakov Lev Voldemarovič Nusberg, Viktor Vladimirovič Stepanov [alle RU (SU)] Effekt [DE] Gruppo N (Alberto Biasi, Manfredo Massironi [both IT]) Equipo 57 (Juan Cuenca, Ángel Duarte, José Duarte, Agustin Ibarrola, Juan Serrano [alle ES]), Eronda [IT] Cam Estenfelder [DE] Karl Gerstner [CH/DE] Jürgen Graaf [DE] Gerard von Graevenitz [DE] Tom Hudson [GB] Reimer Jochims [DE] Rudolf Kaemmer [DE] Ed Kiënder [DE] Hans König-Klingenberg [DE] Edward Krasinski [PL] Bernard Lassus [FR] Lucia Di Luciano [IT] Wolfgang Ludwig [DE] Frank Joseph Malina [US] Kenneth Martin [GB] Gruppo MID [IT] François Morellet [FR] Bruno Munari [IT] Koloman Novak [HR/RS (YU)] Fedora Orebić [HR (YU)] Henk Peeters [NL] Helga Philip [AT] Ivan Picelj [HR (YU)] Otto Piene [DE] Giovanni Pizzo [IT] Lothar Quinte [DE] Vjenceslav Richter [HR (YU)] Bridget Riley [GB] Christian Roeckenschuss [DE] Dieter Rot [DE] Paolo Scheggi [IT] Turi Simeti [IT] Ed Sommer [DE] Klaus Staudt [DE] Zdeněk Sýkora [CZ] Sándor Szandaï [HU] Gruppo T (Giovanni Ancheschi , Davide Boriani, Gianni Colombo, Gabriele De Vecchi [alle IT]) Erwin Thorn [AT] Ivanhoe Trivulzio [IT] Gregorio Vardanega [IT/FR] Emilio Vedova [IT] Nanda Vigo [IT] herman de vries [NL] Ante Vulin [HR (YU)] Ludwig Wilding [DE].