Week 2: Math + Art

Salvador Dalí

Math has always had some sort of influence on artists throughout the years. In the 20th century the fourth dimension started to resonate with many artists as the next natural development within art. The fourth dimension is beyond our reach. It is on another plane of existence so there has been a lot of discussion as to how this dimension can be expressed. A lot of artists found this new dimension to be spiritual and something that would transcend our physical universe. It has become in a way a new “language” because the art shows surreal, idealistic, and utopian views.

Corpus Hypercubus

I stumbled upon Salvador Dalí and his painting Corpus Hypercubus while I was looking into the fourth dimension within art. Dalí originally looked towards Sigmund Freud for inspiration during the Surrealist period, but over time he has been drawn towards Dr. Heisenberg and physics. He worked on a painting heavily influenced by science and the fourth dimension for five years trying to perfect his vision and in 1954 he revealed Corpus Hypercubus. This painting is how he envisions the fourth dimension. It consists of Jesus on the cross but there aren’t any nails and the cross is a tesseract. A lot of people feel that the painting has drawn connections between religion and science.

Tesseract

Math is very straightforward and simple if you know how it works. Art is very interpretive and doesn’t necessarily follow any rules. You would think that the two would not mix well but it is these differences that make them work together. The juxtaposition between the two fields draws out creativity from both sides.

Sources:

Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov.” Cole UC online. Youtube, 9 April 2012. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg&feature=player_embedded>

Henderson, Linda Dalrymple. “The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion.” Leonardo. 17.3 (1984): 205-210. Print.

Macdonald, Fiona. “Culture - The Painter Who Entered the Fourth Dimension.” BBC, BBC, 11 May 2016, www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160511-the-painter-who-entered-the-fourth-dimension.

Abbott, Edwin A. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. Detroit: Gale, 2004.

Ouellette, Jennifer. "Pollock's Fractals." Discover Magazine. November 1, 2001. Accessed April 14, 2019. http://discovermagazine.com/2001/nov/featpollock.