An upcoming auction by Sotheby's Metaverse will feature the works of Vera Molnár, a pioneer of computer and generative art. The project is titled "Themes and Variations" and is the artist's personal reflection towards her decades-long practice.

Vera Molnár was born in 1924 in Budapest, Hungary. She studied at the School of Fine Arts in Budapest and obtained a diploma in art history and aesthetics. She moved to Paris in 1947 with her husband François Molnár. She was influenced by constructivism, conceptual art, cubism and other avant-garde movements, but developed her own form of geometric abstraction based on simple shapes and lines.

In 1968, she started to use computers as a tool to create her artworks. She was one of the first women to do so, and one of the earliest pioneers of computer art and generative art. She used algorithms and programs to generate variations and permutations of geometric forms, creating complex patterns and structures. She also explored the effects of randomness, errors and glitches on her compositions.

The auction encompasses a collection of 500 unique generative artworks. The artworks will be minted as NFTs (non-fungible tokens) on the Ethereum blockchain, and will be sold in a Dutch auction opening on July 26, 2023. Molnár explains her project:

"All these variations around letters resonate in me like music. Even though I stopped playing the piano at the age of 15, music has never left me. I immediately think of Goldberg Variations or Beethoven's Diabelli Variations on a Waltz. That's why I gave the title Theme and Variations to the latest project with the letters N, F, and T that I am working on for my first and only long form generative art project."

Sotheby's Metaverse is a new initiative by Sotheby's, one of the world's oldest and largest auction houses, to explore the possibilities of digital art and NFTs in the emerging metaverse. The newly-launched Sotheby's Gen Art program aims to bring to market some of the most talented and respected generative artists with exclusive new sales. The program will be highly curated and focused on spotlighting up to three artists a year.

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