Frank Böttger (German, b. 1946) serigraph, untitled, 1972
Serigraph
70 × 70 cm
edition of 250
Collection of Bre Pettis
PION.2018.011
Description
One of the MBB Computer Graphics serigraphs — the 1971–72 project in which the aerospace company Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm let a group from its Ottobrunn computing department make art on company iron: engineers Frank Böttger, Aron Warszawski, and Rolf Wölk, and painter Sylvia Roubaud working with programmer Gerold Weiss, initiated by Winfried Fischer. Programs in FORTRAN IV ran on an IBM 360 Model 50 and were drawn by the Kongsberg Kingmatic — at 2 × 6 meters the largest computerized drawing machine of its time in Europe — then editioned as serigraphs. The prints were published in Johann Willsberger's Computer Graphics (1972, published by MBB itself) and intended as a contribution to the cultural program of the 1972 Munich Olympics; the group showed at Tendencies 5 in Zagreb in 1973 and dissolved when the project ended. This sheet is the joint Böttger/Warszawski collaboration; their documented joint work from 1972 is Circle Sequences. It was previously double-catalogued under both names (the Warszawski record is archived as PION.2018.012). Acquired from the Ragnar Digital Art Collection.
Sources: https://www.heikewerner.com/exhibits/computer-art-1972 · http://dada.compart-bremen.de/item/agent/632
The MBB project was folded into the cultural programme for the 1972 Munich Olympic Games; the group exhibited that year in the company canteen at Ottobrunn and at the Olympics' Musik/Film/Dia/Licht-Festival.