Museum of Science and Industry

MOSI will preview a new exhibition on the pioneering art of Desmond Paul Henry (1921-2004), a Whalley Range-based Manchester University academic who created the first known British computer art. This year marks 50 years since the creation of his original drawing machine, made from a former Bombsight computer used during the Second World War, in 1961, and a later version will be displayed in the exhibition.

Known as 'the Picasso of the Machine Age', Desmond Paul Henry's work was the precursor to modern graphic designers and artists such as Karin Kuhlman, but his story is little known to the general public. The MOSI retrospective gives visitors the opportunity to view unique Henry originals and learn about the beginnings of computer graphics.

Henry was discovered in 1961 by the painter L.S. Lowry, when Henry won an art competition for Salford Art Gallery. The prize was a solo London exhibition and Lowry encouraged him to include the computer art in the exhibition when he saw the drawing machine creations in Henry's home. The 1962 exhibition, Ideographs, caused a stir in the media because of the innovative nature of Henry's computer drawings.

Henry also appeared with his first drawing machine on the first of the BBC's 'North at Six' series (September 1962). More recently, a Henry machine-drawing was included in the Victoria and Albert's Digital Pioneers exhibition (December 2009 - June 2010), where Henry was the only British example from the 1960s.

Elaine O'Hanrahan, Henry's daughter and curator of the MOSI exhibition, first started to research the history of her father's story over 10 years ago. Now she has an MPhil in machine generated art and manages the Desmond Paul Henry archive.

Elaine said: "I am delighted that thanks to MOSI's vision, we have this opportunity to present Henry's pioneering machine-generated art in his adopted city of Manchester, on the fiftieth anniversary of his first drawing machine of 1961. My father's machines relied in part upon a mechanics of chance and were not designed as precision instruments. He liked to let them do their own thing! It's been fascinating to delve into the history of his story, which otherwise would have been left under the bed to gather dust."

Although Henry is best known as the author of some key works on Medieval Philosophy and Logic, whilst lecturing at Manchester University, he continued to experiment with drawing machines and other original art media throughout his life.

During the 1960s Henry machine-drawings were also exhibited at Salford Art Gallery, Crumpsall Library and Manchester's Central Reference Library; some of his works and one of his drawing machines was  included in the seminal Art and Technology exhibition held in London in 1968, Cybernetic Serendipity.

Desmond Paul Henry runs from Monday 7 February - Saturday 7 May 2011 in MOSI's 1830 Warehouse. Admission: free. Opening hours: Daily 10.00am to 5.00pm. T: 0161 832 2244. www.mosi.org.uk

Notes to Editors

For more press information and images please contact Elaine O'Hanrahan, Henry's daughter and curator of The D.P. Henry Archive: elaineohanrahan@googlemail.com mobile: 07535573012 or Sarah Roe, Press and Publicity officer at MOSI on Tel: 0161 606 0176 m: 07847 372647

For detailed information on D.P. Henry and his work, visit www.desmondhenry.com

Additional background on Desmond Paul Henry is available from BBC WW2 People's War website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/74/a2701874.shtml

Henry's machine-generated art has inspired BCBG fashion designer Max Azria:'Timeless, effortless and relevant' http://www.wwd.com/image-search/results/?query=max%20azria%20inspired%20by

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