Jean-Pierre Hébert

Jean-Pierre Hébert (1939 – March 28, 2021)

Algorists in 1995 with Roman Verostko. From 2003 until his death, he held an artist-in-residence position at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) at the University of California, Santa Barbara

.

Hébert was born in Calais, France, and grew up in Vence.^[2] He worked for many years in the field of computer science even as he pursued his art. He eventually settled in Santa Barbara, California. He was a pioneer in the field of computer art from the mid-1970s on, merging traditional art media and techniques, personal software, plotters, and custom built devices to create an original body of work. He cited the American artist Anni Albers as an early inspiration and noted that he first read about her work in an IBM brochure.^[2] He was the recipient of Pollock-Krasner Foundation and David Bermant Foundation awards. In 2012, he received the ACM SIGGRAPH Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in Digital Art.^[3]

Hébert produced works on paper, including ink and pencil drawings, paintings, etchings and dry points from polymer and copper plates, and digital prints. He also created sand, water and sound installations, algorithmic visual music, works for wall displays, physics based algorithmic pieces, and more. His work was exhibited extensively and was frequently juried in the SIGGRAPH Art Gallery. Several museums and institutional collections hold his works, including the digital art collections of the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art (Northwestern University, Chicago) and the Victoria and Albert Museum (London). The Art Vault of the Thoma Foundation in Santa Fe, New Mexico featured one of his works, "Circle of Squares" (1992) in its 2021 exhibition entitled, "Saint Somebody: Technologies of the Divine."^[4]

In 2003, he became the artist in residence at the

Algorists group shows.^{[citation needed]} These shows included Hans Dehlinger, Channa Horwitz, Roman Verostko (in 2006), Jean-François Colonna, Helaman Ferguson, Casey Reas (in 2008), and David Em, Paul Hertz, Robert Lang (in 2009) (in 2011).^{[citation needed}

]

He died on March 28, 2021, at the age of 81.[5]

References

^ "Jean-Pierre Hébert (1939-2021)". University of California Santa Barbara. 28 March 2021. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
^ ^a ^b Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara (Spring 2021). "Jean-Pierre Hébert (1939-2021)". UC Santa Barbara, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics. Retrieved July 8, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ List of ACM SIGGRAPH Awards
^ "Saint Somebody". Art Vault. Retrieved 2021-07-08.
^ "In Memoriam: Jean-Pierre Hébert (1939–2021)". Leonardo-Arizona State University. 2021-04-27. Retrieved 2022-01-11.