Hidden Harmony : The Connected Worlds of Physics and Art

by Leibowitz, J. R.

• ISBN13: 9780801888663
• ISBN10: 0801888662
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781421407036
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-06-30
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr
• More Book Details

Summary

Most "art and science" books focus on the science of perspective or the psychology of perception. Hidden Harmony does not. Instead, the book addresses the surprising common ground between physics and art from a novel and personal perspective. Viewing the two disciplines as creative processes, J. R. Leibowitz supplements existing and original research with illustrations to demonstrate that physics and art share guiding aesthetics and compositional demands and to show how each speaks meaningfully to the other.Leibowitz widens our experience and understanding of both domains by exploring how concepts such as balance and re-balance, coherence and unity, and symmetry and "broken" symmetry affect and are affected by artistic vision and scientific principle. He reveals shared themes and understandings in each field and adroitly illustrates the parallels between the dabs of color and layers of images in a work of art and the particles of matter and packets of energy that compose the observable, physical world.Featuring examples of art images and complementary examples of physics concepts, this contemplative work helps us see art and physics as artists and physicists do.

Author Biography

J. R. Leibowitz is an emeritus professor of physics and former chairman of the art department at the Catholic University of America. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
The Mind's Eye as Interpreter	p. 3
What Is Saved and Why	p. 9
What Is Broken and How	p. 21
The Balance of Shapes	p. 37
Some Visual Elements in Art	p. 48
Searching for Light	p. 64
Einstein's Relativity and the Escape from Relativism	p. 74
Form in Impressionism and Postimpressionism	p. 89
Cubism and the Expanding Horizon	p. 110
The Growing Circle of Understanding	p. 119
Notes	p. 133
Index	p. 143
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