Exploring common themes in modern art, mathematics, and science,
including the concept of space, the notion of randomness, and the shape
of the cosmos.
This is a book about art--and a book about mathematics and physics. In
Lumen Naturae (the title refers to a purely immanent, non-supernatural
form of enlightenment), mathematical physicist Matilde Marcolli explores
common themes in modern art and modern science--the concept of space,
the notion of randomness, the shape of the cosmos, and other puzzles of
the universe--while mapping convergences with the work of such artists
as Paul Cezanne, Mark Rothko, Sol LeWitt, and Lee Krasner. Her account,
focusing on questions she has investigated in her own scientific work,
is illustrated by more than two hundred color images of artworks by
modern and contemporary artists.
Thus Marcolli finds in still life paintings broad and deep philosophical
reflections on space and time, and connects notions of space in
mathematics to works by Paul Klee, Salvador Dalí, and others. She
considers the relation of entropy and art and how notions of entropy
have been expressed by such artists as Hans Arp and Fernand Léger; and
traces the evolution of randomness as a mode of artistic expression. She
analyzes the relation between graphical illustration and scientific
text, and offers her own watercolor-decorated mathematical notebooks.
Throughout, she balances discussions of science with explorations of
art, using one to inform the other. (She employs some formal notation,
which can easily be skipped by general readers.) Marcolli is not simply
explaining art to scientists and science to artists; she charts
unexpected interdependencies that illuminate the universe.
