MANFRED MOHRDESSINS GÉNÉRATIFS21.11 - 10.12. 1978

Generative Drawings — this is what Manfred Mohr, a German artist based in Paris, calls his exhibition at Galerie S:t Petri, Lund (November 21 – December 13, 1978).
His fascination with the cube — the fundamental Cartesian three-dimensional object — has meant that he has long been occupied with it in his creative work.
The works shown in Lund date from 1973 to 1977.

To draw a cube in two dimensions, twelve straight lines are required, placed in a specific order.
In doing so, an illusion is created in the mind that we are seeing a three-dimensional figure.
This is only possible because we have acquired knowledge through experience in the perceptual (real) three-dimensional world.
However, if one removes lines from the cube, a new, two-dimensional “graphic being” arises.
It is this very process that Manfred Mohr presents in his exhibition in Lund.

By analyzing the visual idea — in this case, the cube — its internal structure and elementary composition become apparent.
What characterizes the generative systems Mohr uses is the multiplicity of unique drawings they produce.
Through various mathematical–logical calculations of the possible visual variations of a static cube — by successively varying the twelve lines of which the two-dimensional cube consists — Mohr destroys the three-dimensional illusion while preserving the cube’s rigid structure.
Even the two-dimensional images that arise as the cube rotates and different lines are gradually removed are shown.

All the possibilities of the cube that can be seen in the exhibition have been reached through logical–mathematical reasoning.
Manfred Mohr believes it is important to seek and demonstrate the path toward a non-mystified aesthetic communication.

In addition to the cube, other signs and symbols are presented.
Instead of depicting an event sequence with symbols — all different in form and size — he seeks thereby to emphasize the uniqueness of each statement.

This is the first solo exhibition by Manfred Mohr in Sweden.
The gallery is open weekdays 3–8 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays 1–5 p.m.