About this Item
[Hamburg: self-published], 1972. Square quarto (30 × 30 cm). Original printed cardboard folder; 1 leaf (introduction) and 24 silkscreen prints, all signed, dated, and numbered from "1. P." to "24.P.". The first 15 leaves with a tiny (few millimeters) crease to the upper left corner; folder with light wear; small tear at the fold of one flap; edges slightly toned; else very good. One of 40 printed and numbered copies of the suite of prints by Constructivist Max Mahlmann, who experimented with "programmed design" from the mid-1960s onwards. In his introduction to this series, he writes: "The starting points for my programs are basic grids. The playing fields of my construction are created by controlling the coordinate system. Series of numbers result in units and form different proportions. In the structural unit 1 2 4 8, the number 4 is included as an additional ordering factor in individual dimensions. The program consists of 24 permuted variations." Two years before this portfolio was printed, Mahlmann took part in the legendary fourth exhibition of "New Tendencies" in Zagreb (see Margit Rosen, A Little-Known Story About a Movement, a Magazine, and the Computer's Arrival in Art: New Tendencies and Bit International, 1961-1973, Karlsruhe and London 2011, pp. 332 and 343). The members of "New Tendencies" placed themselves in a line of tradition with Concrete and Constructive Art, Bauhaus, Op Art, and Kinetic Art with its dynamic apparatuses. Based on the paradigm of interpreting fine art as "visual research", the Zagreb avant-gardists saw themselves as developers of a programmed art that was ultimately generated or controlled by computers. In other words: In Zagreb, intensive thought was already being given to the possibility of AI art in the 1960s. The Zagreb Group's interest in computers was sparked in no small part by French cyberneticist Abraham Moles, who, alongside Max Bense, was one of the theoretical pioneers of "information aesthetics." His lecture at a symposium accompanying the third "New Tendencies" exhibition was decisive in choosing "Computers and Visual Research" as the theme for the fourth exhibition. The poster for this was designed by Ivan Picelj, who based it on the aesthetics of punched tape. In the same year, the group also began publishing "Bit international". (See Darko Fritz. Vladimir Bona?i?: Computer-Generated Works Made within Zagreb's New Tendencies Network. 1961-1973, in: Leonardo, vol. 41, no. 2, April 2008, pp. 175-183.) Mahlmann, who was deployed as an artist in the so-called propaganda company during the National Socialist regime - to produce watercolors of theaters of war and war events, as well as portraits, cityscapes, and landscapes - moved away from representational art after 1945 and, inspired by Josef Albers, Piet Mondrian, and "De Stijl," he turned to Constructivism. He maintained a correspondence with Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart until the latter's death in 1962. In an effort to further develop Constructivism, Mahlmann developed a geometric-methodical style of painting from 1963 onwards, which led to investigations into "programmed design." From then on, Mahlmann focused on grids, nets, modules, sequences, permutations, progressions, and symmetries. His work increasingly followed mathematically defined rules, leading him to describe his works as "programs". (Jürgen Bartz, AKL LXXXVI, 2015, p. 359) As of February 2026, not in OCLC.
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