Week 2: Math & Art

 Prior to this week’s lectures, I already knew that math surrounded practically every object and concept in existence– it’s reflected in the buildings we live and exist in, the tools we use everyday, and after reviewing this week’s content, I now have a better understanding of how art highly reflects a strong foundation in math. The relationship between art and math comes from more than just form and shape, but also lines and angles, as reflected in Piet Mondrian’s compositions depicting grids with primary colors. Piet Mondrian was a Dutch painter renowned for his pioneering abstract art, particularly his distinctive grid-based compositions characterized by primary colors and black lines. His work expresses nature, life, and logic in a purely geometrical way. His use of geometric shapes such as squares, rectangles, and straight lines reflects a mathematical approach to composition. Mathematical concepts can not only be found as a technique within art, but it can be art itself. 


The use of multiple dimensions and infinite subspaces in art is being highly discussed in the realm of abstract art– the concept of creating in a higher dimension is backed by the motivation to create art that has never been seen before or thought of. The concept of creating something entirely original is something rather unique to art. 4-dimensional art highly advanced the work of Cubists and other abstract artists






The juxtaposition between math, art, and science still exists even though these fields are interconnected in many ways. After reviewing this week’s materials, while art has a foundation in form, shape, dimension, and other geometrical concepts, it is strongly backed by a freedom of expression and the concept of “no rules”. However, math and science are strongly rooted in theories and proofs that have undergone decades of research to be affirmed and understood– there is a rigidity in the rules of mathematics and science that cannot be denied.



Works Cited

Constant, Jean. “The Fourth Dimension in Mathematics and Art.” Bridges Math Art, 2015, https://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2016/bridges2016-541.pdf. Accessed 10 April 2024.

Henderson, Linda Dalrymple. “The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion.” Leonardo, vol. 17, no. 3, 1984, pp. 205–10. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1575193. Accessed 11 Apr. 2024.

Luecking, Stephen. (2019). Visual Teaching of Geometry and the Origins of 20 th Century Abstract Art. Journal of Humanistic Mathematics. 9. 10.5642/jhummath.201902.03. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330669532_Visual_Teaching_of_Geometry_and_the_Origins_of_20_th_Century_Abstract_Art

Nutov, Liora. (2018). When Mathematics Meets Art: How Might Art Contribute to the Understanding of Mathematical Concepts?. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327622738_When_Mathematics_Meets_Art_How_Might_Art_Contribute_to_the_Understanding_of_Mathematical_Concepts

Shara, Jollanda. (2022). MATHEMATICS AND ART.  ResearchGate https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358210455_MATHEMATICS_AND_ART


Images Works Cited

Landau, Elizabeth. “The Fibonacci Sequence Is Everywhere-Even the Troubled Stock Market.” Smithsonian.Com, Smithsonian Institution, 25 Mar. 2020, www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/fibonacci-sequence-stock-market-180974487/. 

Mondrian, Piet. Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow. 1930. Oil on canvas. Private collection. Go Geometry. Blogger. Web. 15 Feb. 2011.

Zindler, K. Traité élémentaire de géométrie a quatre dimensions. Monatsh. f. Mathematik und Physik 15, A27–A28 (1904). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01692337






Comments

  1. LINDA_BLANDON-DESMA9April 12, 2024 at 12:21 PM

    Fantastic blog for this week. I was also taken a back between the juxtaposition relationship between math and art. The "no rule" of freedom of expression truly allows artist to take their pieces to other levels. Also, math as you indicated is very much fixed and the rules cannot be changed. This weeks lesson has completely changed how I view the world around me and it definitely gives me more appreciation for art.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sherry TangApril 13, 2024 at 10:35 AM

    Hi Helena!
    As a huge fan of abstract art, I really enjoyed reading about your perspective on its usage of dimensions and spaces to incorporate math in art. When I was looking at artwork by Cubists, I only noticed their sharp angles and straight lines, I didn't notice how the technique they used in creating these paintings were also forms of math, so you brought up a really interesting point. With abstract art and modern art, I think the connection between math and art is more obvious for audience to observe as compared to paintings from the Rennisance era.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tristan NgoApril 14, 2024 at 10:31 PM

    Great blog this week! As someone who was interested in the golden ratio and its profound impact on art, I enjoyed hearing your insight into Piet Modrian and his use of geometric shapes in a grid pattern to create unique art. It illustrates how despite the common perception of art and math being polar opposites with one being rooted in logic while the other in creativity, math plays an important role in many pieces of art. At the same time, I also agree with your point in how math and science have rules of "correctness" that art does not. For instance, no one can deny that one hundred divided by 2 is not fifty, even if it can be expressed in different ways such as 50.0 or 50.00, which I found interesting.

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