Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 15

Joseph Nechvatal
Post Conceptual Digital Artist Oil Painting Screenprint Diptych Joseph Nechvatal

1985

About the Item

Joseph Nechvatal The Oedipal God of Oil Paint and Destruction, Diptych Oil and screenprint on two canvases, 1985, both signed 'Joseph Nechvatal', titled and dated on the reverse, with label from Brooke Alexander, NY. Joseph James Nechvatal (born 15 January 1951) is a post-conceptual digital artist and art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom-created computer viruses. Joseph Nechvatal was born in Chicago. He studied fine art and philosophy at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Cornell University and Columbia University, where he studied with Arthur Danto while serving as the archivist to the minimalist composer La Monte Young. From 1979, he exhibited his work in New York City, primarily at Galerie Richard, Brooke Alexander Gallery and Universal Concepts Unlimited. He has also solo exhibited in Berlin, Paris, Chicago, Cologne, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Aalst, Belgium, Youngstown, Senouillac, Lund, Toulouse, Turin, Arles and Munich. His work in the early 1980s chiefly consisted of post minimalist gray graphite drawings that were often photo mechanically enlarged. During that period he was associated with the artist group Colab and helped establish the non-profit cultural space ABC No Rio. In 1983 he co-founded the avant-garde electronic art music audio project Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine. In 1984, Nechvatal began work on an opera called XS: The Opera Opus (1984-6) with the no wave musical composer Rhys Chatham. He was included in the MoMA PS1 show Synesthetcis in 1985 along with Peter Halley, Richard Hambleton, Komar and Melamid, Richard Prince, Kiki Smith, Nancy Spero and David Wojnarowicz. He began using computers to make "paintings" in 1986 and later, in his signature work, began to employ computer viruses. These "collaborations" with viral systems positioned his work as an early contribution to what is increasingly referred to as a post-human aesthetic. From 1991–1993 he was artist-in-residence at the Louis Pasteur Atelier in Arbois, France and at the Saline Royale/Ledoux Foundation's computer lab.There he worked on The Computer Virus Project, which was an artistic experiment with computer viruses and computer animation. He exhibited at Documenta 8 in 1987. In 1999 Nechvatal obtained his Ph.D. in the philosophy of art and new technology concerning immersive virtual reality at Roy Ascott's Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts (CAiiA), University of Wales College, Newport, UK (now the Planetary Collegium at the University of Plymouth). There he developed his concept of viractualism, a conceptual art idea that strives "to create an interface between the biological and the technological." According to Nechvatal, this is a new topological space. In 2002 he extended his experimentation into viral artificial life through a collaboration with the programmer Stephane Sikora of music2eye in a work called the Computer Virus Project II, inspired by the a-life work of John Horton Conway (particularly Conway's Game of Life), by the general cellular automata work of John von Neumann, by the genetic programming algorithms of John Koza and the auto-destructive art of Gustav Metzger. In 2005 he exhibited Computer Virus Project II works (digital paintings, digital prints, a digital audio installation and two live electronic virus-attack art installations) in a solo show called cOntaminatiOns at Château de Linardié in Senouillac, France. In 2006 Nechvatal received a retrospective exhibition entitled Contaminations at the Butler Institute of American Art's Beecher Center for Arts and Technology. In 2013, Nechvatal showed work in Noise, an official collateral show of the 55th Venice Biennale of Art, that was based on his book Immersion Into Noise. From 1999 to 2013, Nechvatal taught art theories of immersive virtual reality and the viractual at the School of Visual Arts in New York City (SVA). Joe Lewis wrote: in the artist/theorist tradition of Robert Smithson, Joseph Nechvatal is a pioneer in the field of digital image making who challenges our perceptions of nature by altering conventional notions of space and time, gender, and self. ... Nechvatal successfully plunged into the depths where art, technology and theory meet. Colab Redux at Brooke Alexander: Seminal artist group Colab (short for Collaborative Project) is getting an abbreviated 30-year anniversary look at Brooke Alexander Editions. Formed in 1978 and active for about 10 years, Colab was distinguished for its democratically run, open membership that included, among others, Jenny Holzer, G. H. Hovagimyan, Joseph Nechvatal, Tom Otterness, Judy Rifka, and Robin Winters.Colab has continued to inspire numerous incarnations of organized artists communities, including ABC No Rio. Aesthetically, Colab focused on new media instead of traditional art objects, emphasizing TV production, video editing, film, and performance. Colab’s landmark Times Square exhibition in 1980 was a “groundswell of popularly accessible socially themed artworks held in an empty building that has housed an erotic massage parlor. Critics called it ‘punk art’—‘three cord art anyone can play.’” His computer-robotic assisted paintings and computer animations are shown regularly in galleries and museums throughout the world. From 1991-3 he worked as artist-in-resident at the Louis Pasteur Atelier and the Saline Royale / Ledoux Foundation's computer lab in Arbois, France on 'The Computer Virus Project': an experiment with computer viruses as a creative stratagem. He has exhibited his work widely in Europe and the United States, both in private and public venues. Awards 2003 New York Foundation for the Arts: Computer Arts 1996-98 Research Fellowship,University of Wales ,CAiiA, Great-Britain 1995 Artist-in Residence, Cite des Art Internationale, Paris 1992 New York, NY Foundation for the Arts, Painting 1992-93 Artist-in-Resident, Fondation Claude-Nicolas Ledoux's computer lab in Arc-et-Senans 1991-93 Artist-in-Residence, Arbois, France 1989 Jackson Pollock- Lee Krasner Foundation Award 1988 New York, NY Foundation for the Arts, Painting 1986 National Endowment for the Arts, Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts 1985 National Endowment for the Arts, Painting National Endowment for the Arts, Opera and Musical Theater Massachusetts Council of the Arts, Performance Public Collections The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA The National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA Los Angeles County Museum of Art, L.A., USA The Jewish Museum, New York, NY, USA Malmö Konsthall, Malmö, Sweden Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel The Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC, USA The Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA The New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM, USA The Portland Museum of Art, Portland, OR, USA The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, MN, USA The Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA Musée de Dôle, Dôle, France Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA The Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK, USA Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, USA The Schyl Foundation, Malmo Konsthall, Sweden The South Dakota Museum of Art, Brookings, SD, USA The Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA The University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie, WY, USA The Municipal Museum of Art, Györ, Hungary The Robert Shiffler Foundation, Greenville OH, USA The Academy Art Museum, Easton, MD, USA The Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH, USA Saline Royale, Arc-et-Senans, France Musée Léon Dierx, La Réunion, France Shoes Or No Shoes Museum, Oudenaarde, Belgium
  • Creator:
    Joseph Nechvatal (1951)
  • Creation Year:
    1985
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 64 in (162.56 cm)Width: 30 in (76.2 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    good. minor wear. frame has wear.
  • Gallery Location:
    Surfside, FL
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU38214443752

More From This Seller

View All
Large John Hultberg SF Bay Area Artist Abstract Expressionist Oil Painting
By John Hultberg
Located in Surfside, FL
John Hultberg Oil on canvas Panorama of pictures. 1998 Hand signed lower right, J. Hultberg ‘98. Artist, date, and title written on verso. Canvas 25.5”H x 35”W, Frame 26”H x 35.5”W. Oil painting depicting a mosaic of photographs overlooking an abstract geometric landscape. John Hultberg (1922 – 2005) was an American Abstract expressionist and Abstract realist painter. Early in his career he was related to the Bay Area Figurative Movement; he was also a lecturer and playwright. John Hultberg was born in 1922 in Berkeley, California. Hultberg attended Fresno State College, graduating in 1943. During World War II, he was a Navy lieutenant. After the war, his education at the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA) (now the San Francisco Art Institute) was funded by the G.I. Bill. His teachers included Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still and he was a classmate of Richard Diebenkorn, who was also a mentor, James Budd Dixon, Walter Kuhlman, Frank Lobdell, and George Stillman, which whom he created a portfolio of 17 lithographs. This 1948 portfolio, titled Drawings, has been acknowledged as a landmark in Abstract Expressionist printmaking. The group has been referred to as "The Sausalito Six," because most, lived in Sausalito, north of San Francisco. Many of the "First Generation" artists in this West Coast movement were avid fans of Abstract Expressionism, and worked in that manner, until several of them abandoned non-objective painting in favor of working with the figure. Among these First Generation Bay Area Figurative School artists were: David Park, Richard Diebenkorn, Rex Ashlock, Elmer Bischoff, Glenn Wessels, Wayne Thiebaud, Raimonds Staprans, and James Weeks. The "Bridge Generation" included the artists: Henrietta Berk, Nathan Oliveira, Theophilus Brown, Paul Wonner, Roland Petersen, John Hultberg, and Frank Lobdell. He was also a contemporary of Clay Spohn and David Park. Hultberg studied at the Art Students League of New York beginning in 1952. Hultberg was first married to Hilary Blech. In 1961 Hultberg met fellow artist Lynne Mapp Drexler...
Category

1990s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Large Colorful Abstract Expressionist Oil Painting Modernist Beach Landscape
By Ralph Rosenborg
Located in Surfside, FL
Ralph Rosenborg (American, 1913-1992) "American Landscape, Sky and Shore, 1973" Oil on canvas. Signed 'Rosenborg' (lower right). Titled (verso). 30 x 40 in Ralph Rosenborg (1913–1992) was an American artist whose paintings were described as both expressionist and abstract and who was a colleague of the New York Abstract Expressionists in the 1940s and 1950s. Unlike them, however, he preferred to make small works and tended to explicitly draw upon natural forms and figures for his abstract subjects. Called a "highly personal artist," he developed a unique style that was considered to be both mystical and magic. His career was exceptionally long, covering more than 50 years. Rosenborg was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 9, 1913. In 1929, while he was a high school student, he began to work with the designer, artist, and instructor, Henriette Reiss. When Rosenborg encountered her, Reiss was serving as an instructor for the School Art League in the American Museum of Natural History. She was then engaged in instructing both students and their teachers in the city school system by a method she called Rhythmic Design. She believed inspiration for abstract designs could be found in rhythms—rhythms that could be perceived in ordinary perceptions much as they are when listening to music. In May 1930 Reiss selected a drawing by Rosenborg to be shown in an exhibition of creative design by City high school students. From 1930 to 1933, aged 17 to 20, Rosenborg studied with Reiss in what Vivien Raynor of the New York Times called a "pupil-apprentice" relationship. During this time she instructed him in music appreciation, literature, and art history as well as giving technical training in art. In April 1934 Rosenborg was one of 1,500 artists to participate in the annual Salons of America exhibition, which was held that year in Rockefeller Center RCA Building. Each paid two dollars for the privilege of hanging up to three works and none was given prominence over the others. The New York Times reported that by the time the show closed a month later, some 30,000 people had viewed it. The following year he was given a solo exhibition (his first) at the Lounge Gallery of the Eighth Street Playhouse. The year after that he participated in a group show held by the Municipal Art Committee and in 1937 was given a second solo exhibition, this time in the Artists Gallery. That year he also became a founding member of and participated in a group show held by American Abstract Artists, a loose assembly of artists that aimed to promote abstract art and artists in New York. Its founders included Josef Albers, Ilya Bolotowsky, Werner Drewes, Ibram Lassaw, Mercedes Matter, Louis Schanker, Vaclav Vytlacil and Rudolph Weisenborn. At roughly the same time Rosenborg associated himself with a group of abstractionists that called itself "The Ten" (It included Ben-Zion, Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb and Joe Solman) and in May 1938 joined with its other members in what would be his first appearance in a commercial gallery: the Gallery Georgette Passedoit. In 1938 he his work appeared in a group show at the Lounge Gallery, in 1939 in group shows at the Artists Gallery and at the Bonestell Gallery with David Burliuk, Earl Kerkam, Karl Knaths and Jean Liberte...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Jute

American Abstract Expressionist Artist Melissa Meyer Oil Painting Chance
By Melissa Meyer
Located in Surfside, FL
MELISSA MEYER (American, b. 1946), 'Chance' Oil on Canvas 2006 Hand signed, dated and titled, verso Height: 30 inches, Width: 28 inches Provenance: Rebecca Ibel Gallery, Columbus, OH Melissa Meyer (born May 4, 1946) is an American artist and painter. The Wall Street Journal has referred to her as a "lighthearted Abstract Expressionist". She works in various formats, large abstract paintings, watercolors, prints, monotype, monoprint and drawings made up of fields of gestures. This one is abstract swirling hues of purple, red, blue, orange and yellow, Selected solo shows: Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., New York, NY; List Gallery, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA; New York Studio School, New York, NY; Rebecca Ibel Gallery, Columbus, OH. Selected Group shows: “The Maslow Collection: Context and Content”, The Maslow Study Gallery for Contemporary Art, Scranton, PA; “Summer Reverie Invitational,” William Siegel Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.; "One of a Kind; Monoprints, Monotypes", The Gallery, Spencertown Academy...
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Large Figurative Abstract Expressionist Textured Painting Adolf Benca
Located in Surfside, FL
Abstract oil painting on stretched canvas featuring figures against a dark brown background. Signed upper left. Adolf Benca was born in Bratislava, Slova...
Category

20th Century Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

American Abstract Expressionist Artist Melissa Meyer Oil Painting Flaming Heart
By Melissa Meyer
Located in Surfside, FL
MELISSA MEYER (American, b. 1946), ''Bleeding Heart'', 1982, Oil and wax (encaustic) on canvas, Signed to canvas verso. Canvas 39-1/4''h, 31-3/4''w. Melissa Meyer (born May 4,...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Wax, Oil

Joseph Wolins WPA Artist Dancing, Torah Modernist Judaica Cubist Oil Painting
By Joseph Wolins
Located in Surfside, FL
Joseph Wolins 1915-1999 Subject: Jewish, Dancing with the Torah (New Torah, Simchat Torah) Hand signed oil painting In this painting, Joseph Wolins uses vibrant and complimentary co...
Category

20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

You May Also Like

Caput Mortuum - Conceptual Encaustic Oil Painting, Marble Dust Ash On Canvas XXL
By Krzysztof Gliszczyński
Located in Salzburg, AT
Overall Size: Height 200cm x Width 300cm ( The painting consists of 2 parts, one part: 200x150cm ) Overall Size: Height 78,7402 Inch x Width 118,11 Inch ( The painting consists o...
Category

1990s Conceptual Abstract Paintings

Materials

Marble

Limiting Beliefs
Located in Zofingen, AG
How often are we held back from deciding by the many limiting beliefs and frameworks instilled in us from birth by our immediate environment and society? These limiting beliefs are a...
Category

2010s Conceptual Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Meeting. 1998. Oil on canvas, 100 x 99. 5 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Meeting. 1998. Oil on canvas, 100x99.5 cm Victor Karnauh (1950, Dnepropetrovsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR – 2012, Dnepropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine) – a painte...
Category

1990s Conceptual Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Path. Oil on canvas, 90x110 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Path. Oil on canvas, 90x110 cm Victor Karnauh (1950, Dnepropetrovsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR – 2012, Dnepropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine) – a painter, a monume...
Category

1990s Conceptual Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Meeting II. Oil on canvas, 85x84.5 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Meeting II Oil on canvas, 85x84.5 cm Victor Karnaukh (1950, Dnepropetrovsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR – 2012, Dnepropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine) – a painter, a monument designer, graduate ...
Category

1990s Conceptual Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Flight. 1999. Oil on canvas, 76x91 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Flight 1999. Oil on canvas, 76x91 cm Victor Karnaukh (1950, Dnepropetrovsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR – 2012, Dnepropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine) – a painter, a monument designer, graduate ...
Category

1990s Conceptual Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Recently Viewed

View All