The Lost Duality of Science and Visual Arts
“The greatest scientists are artists as well”- Albert Einstein
The study of science and visual arts once went hand and hand. However, as science got more articulated to specified fields, and the public perception of art was changing since the renaissance to be less prestigious, the two fields have become tragically separated. I believe that scientists and artists are similar inherently, as they both want to explore and explain nature. As an artist I am deeply fascinated by the intricacies of the way our world works and try to depict them visually. I do this not only for myself but find joy in assisting others to view the beauty and uniqueness of the world that I see. I create artwork that depicts conceptual physics topics and have been met with pushback by professors and peers that question the validity of my work. Through my research of artists who have depicted science in centuries past that have been respected for it, I found validation in my work. I have come across some amazing artists such as the famous Leonardo Da Vinci who was trained in interdisciplinary studies, Hilma af Klint who used scientific finds of her time in collaboration with her esoteric perspectives to create glorious abstract art, Santiago Ramon Y Cajal who was a neuroscientist who assisted in advancing neuroscience through his creative thinking and has beautiful works to coincide with his findings, and Marcel Duchamp who portrayed dimensions as Einstein's theory of relativity was being released. These artist listed affected arts, science and culture in a society that is before our present time who’s effects still hold value today, but there are artists doing the same thing now that deserve the same respect and recognition that in a future post I will cover as well. For now if you want to learn more about the artists I mentioned above keep reading.
Many have heard of Leonardo Da Vinci and his work like the Mona Lisa and Last supper. Some may even have heard him being referred to as a “true renaissance man” for his interests in exploring many subjects, understanding them deeply and conveying them creatively. However the span of his accomplishments and works are rarely taught or shared like his famous art pieces. His resume is truly overwhelming to even get into. Da Vinci studied hydrologics, civil engineering, mathematics, optics, astronomy, astrology, physics, and so much more. One avenue of his work that I find fascinating is his work with neuroscience. He was curious about the brain's inner workings, metaphorically and physically. He had been dissecting the brain and drawing it but had the idea to find a way to make molds of the inner workings of the brain. The article “The Hidden Neuroscience of Leonardo Da Vinci” by Sophia Fessel, Fessel describes Leonardos process for making molds of a brain. Using the brain of an ox he developed a way to make molds of a brains venticies. He drilled a hole in the base of the ox’s skull, then used hot wax and injected it into the brains ventricles. He then cut away the skull and dissected the brain to see the cast of the ventricles. This is my favorite instance of his artistic advancements because not only does it show how imperative it is to think creatively to get new scientific outcomes, but how having a background in art and sculpture made this invention possible.
Cerebral ventricles of the ox brain. Leonardo da Vinci, ca. 1508 (Royal Library, Windsor Castle)
One of my favorite artists of all time is named Hilma af Klint. She has a brilliant documentary about her called “Beyond the Visible - Hilma af Klint”. The Guggenheim also has an article on her life and work as her pieces were feautured in their museum. The article Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future, explains how she was deeply curious about the nature of reality and viewed the scientific discoveries propagating during her time through an esoteric lense. The articles goes onto plain how Hilma af Klint was a technically trained artist at the Stockholm academy of Fine art. After her studies she joined a spiritualist group called “The Five” where she created naturalist paintings inspired by her esoteric beliefs and new scientific evidence that explained the nature of reality. She didn’t release these works during her lifetime but had her granddaughter release them after her death. It is explained that she did this because she knew those who led discussions about art and culture wouldn’t respect it and society at the time wasn’t ready to accept what she was creating. She knew her work was ahead of her time, quite literally. Kandinsky is thought to be one of the first Abstract artists but her work was created long before his were. I am an advocate that she should be recognized as the first abstract artist.
Hilma af Klint (Swedish, 1862-1944) The Ten Largest, No. 7, Adulthood, 1907 © Stiftelsen Hilma af Klints Verk
An instance of a scientist by profession who was passionate about art and used it to explain his findings was Santiago Ramon y Cajal. The article “History of Neuroscience": Ramon y Cajal” explains the advancements Cajal made through his art as well as his scientific work. The article explains how Cajal was curious about art from a young age and was pressured into Neuroscience by his father after expressing interest in being an artist. However, as a neuroscientist using a microscope in the late 19th century, he had to hand draw all of his findings. This led to beautiful works that communicated revolutionary scientific findings. In the 1880s, there was the perception of a fully communicated network of neurons that functioned as the brain. Camillo Golgi questioned this and created a stain which was used to dye cells to be more accurately observed under a microscope called the “Golgi stain”. This invention suggested that neurons were not as connected as previously believed. Cajal took this further, enhanced the stain the be darker, used thicker section of tissue to analyze and made the stain to be used on a wider range of neurons. Through this he proved that neurons are separated by a microscopic amount now known as synapses. This explains that neutrons, while separate units, operate together through signals. This was then described as the “Neural Doctrine”. Throughout his studies and depictions of his observations from the microscope, he creates a vast amount of fascinating artwork that communicates his findings.
“Células de Purkinje” - Santiago Ramón y Cajal
The Cubist movement was directly influenced by the idea of the fourth-dimension. During the birth of the cubist movement, Einstein was expressing his theories on relativity. These scientific discoveries foundationally changed the way people viewed the world and artists were there to assist by depicting these ideas. Duchamp was highly interested in the fourth dimension and created many pieces informed by the technical explanations of dimensionality from Einstein's theory of relativity but was more curious about the space than time aspect. In Duchamp's piece “A Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors'' also known as “Large Glass”, he used glass to illustrate the idea of four dimensionality by allowing the audience to walk around a standing piece of art on glass compared to one framed on a solid wall. From the article titled “Marcel Duchamp, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass)” by Dr. Lara Kuykendall on on the Smart History cite. I found information of interpretations of this piece, I recommend visiting the site. This piece deserves it’s own lengthy post for how fascinating it is, which I will do soon, but he creates his own machine where the observer can view and interact with it by presuming it’s motion. Cubists took scientific findings and ran with it. They created visual depictions of multi-dimensionality, often on a 2d space. I am personally very inspired by this as I consider what medium to use to communicate my scientific theories and what I learn about.
Marcel Duchamp, Bride Striped Bare by her Bachelors, 1915/23. The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Photo
There are even more artists than the ones I described that have had fantastic effects on science and the public understanding of such topics. The amount of modern artists who are also inspired by these ideas is inspiring as well. What I wanted to study and comment on is that art and science used to go hand in hand and would be respected as a collaborative effort. However, we are in the age of information where it may not even be fully necessary to have access to scientists directly when we can research and have the capacity to, to an extent, really understand a plethora of topics without formally studying them through a University. My goal is to find people who want to collaborate outside of a professional setting in the arts and sciences. I have met so many people who study physics, engineering and biology who are also fascinated by film, poetry and visual art. As well as artists who are fascinated by topics like physics, engineering and biology. With information at the touch of our fingertips, how could we limit ourselves to one topic of interest.
Sources
Dr. Lara Kuykendall, "Marcel Duchamp, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass) ," in Smarthistory, March 6, 2016, accessed June 26, 2022, https://smarthistory.org/duchamp-largeglass/
Guggenheim. 2017. “Hilma Af Klint: Paintings for the Future.” Guggenheim. August 17, 2017. https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/hilma-af-klint.
Ph.d Fessel, Sophie, “The Hidden Neuroscience of Leonardo Da Vinci.”, n.d. Dana Foundation., September 23, 2019. https://dana.org/article/the-hidden-neuroscience-of-leonardo-da-vinci/.
López-Muñoz, Francisco, Jesús Boya, and Cecilio Alamo. 2006. “Neuron Theory, the Cornerstone of Neuroscience, on the Centenary of the Nobel Prize Award to Santiago Ramón Y Cajal.” Brain Research Bulletin 70 (4-6): 391–405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainresbull.2006.07.010.