The Art of Ilene “IS” Schuster (1948-2016)

The mainstream artworld has only recently recognized the roles of women for their critical contributions in the development of early computer art. As one of few women working in digital art in the 1970s, “Is” Schuster subverted stereotypes, pushed past boundaries and opened minds to new possibilities. Schuster approached the computer not just as an artist’s tool, but as a creative partner. Her explorations with randomness, oscillating patterns, and geometric shapes recall the modern abstract movements of Op Art, Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism. Layers of color, line, form and ancient iconography converge to illuminate timeless wisdom, much like the allegories depicted in the stained glass of Gothic cathedrals. Straddling historical contexts via the use of modern technology reveals a depth of emotion and meaning. Schuster’s legacy of work is a gift to humanity, intended to enlighten the mind, nurture the spirit, encourage personal growth and promote universal acceptance against opposing forces in our culture.

Schuster’s intended her art to create a unique environment for deeply personal, emotional, and meditative experience for the viewer. Large-scale canvases engulf the viewer’s field of vision, providing an immersive interaction. Schuster’s art requires from the viewer an investment of TIME: Time spent in quiet contemplation, slowly absorbing the colors, depth and reflections on life and mortality; and the passage of time, to realize the possibilities and manifestation of gifts to oneself.  Schuster’s legacy continues to inspire a sense of awe, spirituality, and connection with the universal human condition.

All digital works were printed with archival ink on acid-free grounds and have maintained their original vibrance and brilliance. Each edition is a unique expression, signed, titled and numbered by the artist. Schuster’s works come with a Certificate of Authenticity, indicating the series, title and print number within the edition, and a guarantee of the retirement of the original digital file. For information or to make an appointment to view the collection, contact Hudson Estate Sales.

The ART of IS :: Works By Other Artists in the Collection

Homage Series (1983-2011)

‘“I’m going to give these tools a history. I’m going to take great public works of art and interpret them on the computer.” —Is Schuster

Artists working in the early days of computer graphics were simultaneously unencumbered and limited by their historical predecessors. There were no prevailing aesthetic movements or established traditions to either dispel or build upon. Schuster confronted these challenges in the Homage Series, from 1983 to 1987, by mining familiar concepts from art history, adapting them, and applying a new imaging technology. Schuster’s approach grounded the work in a historical framework, while releasing the new, still primitive, technology towards creating her personal vision. Schuster and her contemporaries invented a new iconography for an emerging art form that commanded recognition from the prevailing modern art culture and legitimized computer-generated media.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

“I was confronted with making art with tools that had no visual history. It was a strange and unsettling feeling. I began to understand how important art history is in the conception of new ideas and decided to create a history for the media. I felt that this would ground my process of working towards the development of a personal vision with these newly born and emerging tools.”

Homage Series (1984 - 2011): Available as ERIM Cibachrome prints, framed and un-framed, signed and numbered by the artist, from 20 x 24 up to 50 x 46, dated, titled and signed by the artist.

Manifestation Series (2007-2012)

“It’s time for the artist to bring forth ways to heal.” —Is Schuster

Schuster’s imagery relies heavily on symbolism, focusing on spiritual and subjective ideas derived from multi-cultural belief systems. Motifs from ancient Australian Aboriginal art, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Chinese symbolism are offered as a journey to self-understanding and self-acceptance. 

The glowing, illuminating symbols float in a multi-layered, vibrantly-colored space, like “exploding pieces…lights that shine… shapes that swirl around…simultaneously receding and emerging from their historic contexts.”

The Manifestation series was intended to be a tool for self-healing. Schuster believed that, over time, the experience of living and working among these powerful ancient symbols would awaken one’s consciousness to attain the necessary attributes to manifest one’s goals, and fulfill one’s destiny.

Manifestation Series: Available in a limited range of sizes: Giclee print on canvas, 40” x 78”, mounted and wrapped on 2” stretcher bars; 51“x 51” digital print on stretched canvas, 30 “x 31” framed, 13” x 19” Giclee on archival paper. Also available: un-framed digital prints on canvas (roll) and Kodak paper. All work is signed in verso, titled and numbered by the artist.

Click through to see available works.

Space Series (1984-1987)

“I could feel the depth of space. The space inside your mind…exploding pieces…lights that shined… shapes that swirled around and went in and out of one another…. It is a macro-cosmic and micro-cosmic kind of thing.” —Is Schuster

Schuster’s earliest series of computer art was created while performing post-graduate work in the late 1970s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) computer lab. Schuster created rasterized images on MIT’s dedicated, mainframe computer, experimenting with what was then, the most advanced computer imaging software, Kaleidoscope RasterTech 2800. Later, in the mid- to late- 1980s, Schuster worked at the University of Michigan’s Aerospace Engineering Department (AERO) and explored early digital painting with Lumina software, a predecessor of MacPaint.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

“The experience of making art in the late 1970’s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Architecture Machine Group felt to me as though I had gone to the moon and back.

Fantastic experiments and futuristic inventions were everywhere. Among the tools available to me was a choice of 40,000,000 colors. One could create organic as well as geometric forms – all very far out for the time. Images could be produced by sitting in a specially built, cushioned armchair and running a finger along a small plastic square set into the front edge of each arm. The image would simultaneously appear on a giant wall size screen.”

From ARTISTS IN THE COMPUTER AGE Exhibit (1986):

“For me, to work with the computer is to examine that nebulous area beyond and within the monitor which acts as a telescope to reveal the essence of our time and our future. It’s that black hole (the monitor) in space that we’ve entered (as a society), from which there is no turning back. It’s that fertile place where I paint with light and sculpt across infinite dimensions appearing two dimensionally.” 

Space Series: Limited-edition Cibachrome prints, available framed and un-framed, Signed by the artist in verso, in sizes from 20 x 24 up to 46 x 46, framed and unframed.

Flower Series (1972, 1987-89)

“Going into the unconscious is not as fearful as anticipating doing it.”—Is Schuster

Schuster’s Flower Series is an embodiment of inner peace and harmony in nature. These images represent an opening, both of the self and of humanity. Schuster intended viewers to experience wholeness and completeness, while in the presence of living and working among these works. Peace of mind, harmony in human relations, support and nourishment for the profusion of life in an atmosphere of mutual co-existence take form, as these images are experienced over time.

Early Work: Original acrylic paintings, and limited-edition prints, mounted and framed.

The ART of IS :: Works By Other Artists in the Collection

Early Work & Mixed Media (1968-1988)

“All along the search was for understanding the psyche, understanding the mind.”—Is Schuster

Schuster quickly adapted her artistic sensibilities and creativity from her educational background in traditional painting, printmaking and sculpture, to embrace a new vision via computer science and engineering skills. Whether approaching fantasy, mythology, figurative work, flowers or color-field painting, Schuster maintained a core belief across mediums, that art served as a vehicle for understanding the self.

Early Work: Original paintings, sculpture, mixed media and limited-edition prints in various sizes, signed and titled

The ART of IS :: Works By Other Artists in the Collection

War Series (1989-1991)

“It was very clear to me that these tools were being made for war. It’s time for the artist to bring forth ways to heal.”—Is Schuster

In the late 1980s, Ilene Schuster was invited to work as a guest artist-in-residence by The Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (ERIM). ERIM was a research organization developing U.S. military reconnaissance. ERIM’s abundant technological resources provided Schuster with an unprecedented opportunity to create large-scale, super-high resolution digital artworks and produce mural-sized prints with NASA-level clarity.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

“I could see that the extreme power and far-reaching possibilities of these technological developments were going to radically alter the world in many ways, including our perceptions and manner of relating, as well as the nature of combat. It was clear that these developments had the potential to spawn great alienating disconnects particularly tragic in war. However, at the same time, I also perceived positive humanistic potential. The War Series was developed as a benevolent use of these tools.”

“Technology embodies both human creative and destructive potential. It may be ultimately responsible for our salvation – or demise. Right now our potential to destroy far outweighs our capacity to create. It is my hope and belief that with the creative use of these tools by artists, our potential to create will outstrip our capacity for destruction; that beauty and harmony will ultimately reign supreme.”—Is Schuster

ERIM Cibachrome print, approx. 50 x 36, limited editions, signed in verso, titled and dated

For information or to make an appointment to view the collection, contact Hudson Estate Sales.

The ART of IS :: Works By Other Artists in the Collection