Vera Molnár (Hungarian, 1924–2023) was a painter and pioneer of algorithmic art who used geometric abstraction, chance, and later computers to generate systematic series of drawings. She began developing combinatorial imagery by hand in 1959 through a self-devised process she called the “machine imaginaire”, and started working with a real computer in 1968.
Born in Budapest, Molnár studied art history and aesthetics at the Budapest College of Fine Arts, where she met her husband François Molnár. The couple moved to Paris in December 1947, where Molnár's circle at the café Le Select introduced her to Sonia Delaunay, Constantin Brancusi and Georges Vantongerloo, and where Delaunay's encouragement proved decisive for her practice. In 1960 she co-founded the artistic research group GRAV (Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel), which investigated kinetic and op art, and in 1967 the group Art et Informatique.
