A part of the eponymous exhibition.

AI systems are pattern-finding machines. Upon feeding one a set of images, visual pattern recognition is achieved in part through hierarchical extraction of features. If a set of data—in this case, paintings—has consistent features, it’s easier for the system to learn, and replicate, the pattern.

I began thinking of “Old Masters'” works as pattern and asked myself whether I could extract their consistent elements and accumulate them as a mass of so-called genius. I compiled existing AI-generated images of figures in the “style” of William-Adolphe Bouguereau. Once I had a large enough set, I picked out the body parts the AI most confidently replicated. I cross-referenced them with actual Bouguereau paintings in order to assess the AI’s accuracy to the originals and decided upon a small library of body parts to abstract.