Peter Beyls + Jean-Pierre Hébert: Algorithmic Introspections

DAM is happy to present a selection of plotter drawings from the past 50 years by two major artists in this field: Peter Beyls (BE) and Jean-Pierre Hébert (FRA).

Beyls, who has a background in electronic music, got involved on a very conceptual level and is intrigued by working with code and creating algorithmic systems. Hébert combined his background in mathematics with his passion for drawings to explore how software could do justice to the drawing arts, and how well the pen plotter would render these abstract mathematical line drawings on paper.

Both artists are part of a group called “Algorists”, originally created by Hébert and Roman Verostko. They stated that artists who create an object of art with a process that includes their own algorithms are identified as allegorists. There are no more than 10 artists worldwide who pursued a career in this medium in combination with plotter drawings over the past 50 years. Beyls and Hébert are amongst them.