‘There is an art to mathematics and a mathematics to art.’
(Hany Farid, computer scientist at Dartmouth University in Hanover, N.H.)
According to a february 2007 article from sciencenews.org, titled Fractal or Fake?
Novel art-authentication method is challenged, a debate about fractals in art and Jackson Pollock prompted a defense by the father of fractals, Benoît Mandelbrot, a professor emeritus at Yale University : “I have extraordinary experience of these structures. Drawing on that experience, I do believe that Pollocks are fractal.
nodakami, 10 months ago
But ! as mentionned in another article says :
“Pollock died in 1956, before chaos and fractals were discovered. It is highly unlikely, therefore, that Pollock consciously understood the fractals he was painting. Nevertheless, his introduction of fractals was deliberate. For example, the colour of the anchor layer was chosen to produce the sharpest contrast against the canvas background and this layer also occupies more canvas space than the other layers, suggesting that Pollock wanted this highly fractal anchor layer to visually dominate the painting.”
Patricia L. Ba..., 10 months ago
As an old art history major, I’ve noticed many fractal-like images in art all through the ages. Isn’t it that the math is an outgrowth from or a description of nature. The same goes for the art. They are just two ways of describing the same phenomina.
nodakami, 10 months ago
Exactly, that’s why I found the final quote of the article to be so well said, and the doodles experiment so fun !
Suzanne German, 10 months ago
My interest in fractals stems from a purely philosophical enquiry….and even when I was still an undergraduate in Philosophy, I remember with interest, studying the lines and angles that Pollock uses with delight – I must say, even id it was not conscious fractal geometry he applied, it seems that it still was.
All in all – I really like Pollock’s expression and the mingling of abstract with geometry and still all flowing into one phenomenon.
kittykat, 10 months ago
Isn’t one of the most famous quotes of Galileo that the “universe is written in the language of mathmatics”? This truth is self evident to any half way intelligent person. Of course Pollock’s work has an “anchor” in mathmatics….(geometry)..
Patricia L. Ba..., 10 months ago
Many of the world’s great artists are intuitive mathematical geniuses. The other great artists consciously study math. The older I get the more amazed I am by the way that the universe works. That’s really what led me to fractals. It’s all astounding the way it all fits together.
Suzanne German, 10 months ago
This reminds me of being at school – I would have been around 13 and during a geography lesson we studied ‘karst topography’ .....which is found in places like the shorelines in Split – Yugoslavia and most rocky beaches in Malta.
Well..the thing is…that the way the teacher described what karst topography was (and this was at least 34 years ago)...is not dissimilar to what we now call ‘fractal geometry’....I remember thinking about it (at the time) in a a fractal context…(although I didn’t know what fractal meant then).....goes to show that something can be before we are even aware of what it is…..getting deeper here….there’s that fractal stuff again!!!!
I remember once seeing a print by Magritte which reminded me again of this concept….namely – the door opening to another door opening to another door opening ad infinitum…...I think that is also the way that Socrates described knowledge….’the more you know – the more you know how much you don’t know….’ how true!!!
cheers
SG