New Math: Contemporary Art and the Mathematical Instinct, October 26 to December 12, 2004
October 8, 2004
On October 26, 2004, the Marsh Art Gallery, University of Richmond Museums, will open New Math: Contemporary Art and the Mathematical Instinct. On view through December 12, 2004, the exhibition brings together more than thirty artists whose works are variously related to the operations, theories, and cultural history of mathematics. Featured are installation and computer-generated art as well as more traditional art media such as painting, graphic art, and sculpture. Represented artists include Max Bill, Mel Bochner, Agnes Denes, Alfred Jensen, and Sol LeWitt.
Loosely structured around four major themes, the exhibition's first grouping focuses on the history, science, and culture of mathematics. Inspired by various systems such as the Mayan calendar, the I Ching, and Moorish decoration, Alfred Jensen created a silkscreen print (Portfolio #1, 1973) that shows patterns of lines and symbols suggesting a symbiotic relationship between math and spiritual enlightenment. Minimalist artist Mel Bochner made a series of relief prints titled On Certainty (1991) depicting Arabic numerals over grids, inspired by the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, the influential twentieth-century philosopher.
The second selection of artwork explores algorithms. For her silk weaving Untitled #69 (2001), Rebecca Bluestone used the progressive repetition of the Fibonacci sequence, where two numbers added together yield a third, the previous two yield a fourth, and so on (i.e. 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21...). Bluestone organized squares in an abstract design to visually mimic the sequence. Kenneth Rinaldo's Autopoiesis (2000-2002) is a mixed-media sculpture composed of limb-like robotic arms that use electronic sensors, on-board computers, and algorithmic software. The arms move and create sound in relationship to their environmental stimuli, such as the movement of museum visitors.
Included in the section on geometry is the sculpture Starcage Model (1993) by Aiko Hizume. The plastic model is based on the icosidodecohedron -- a form whose edges are extended until they meet at points -- and was motivated by the research of British mathematician Sir Roger Penrose. The artwork is accompanied by music composed using a scale based on the Golden Mean, and it progresses along the lines of a one-dimensional Penrose Lattice. Dick Termes' Finishing an Escher (1977) is a hanging orb painted with a design meant to present the complexities of six-point perspective and inspired by the drawings of twentieth-century artist M.C. Escher.
The last grouping deals with probability and statistics, as in Michael Banicki's Wildflower / Weed Rating (1993). For this acrylic and pencil painting Banicki "ranks" wildflowers using a color-coded system to reveal the subjective nature of statistics and to satirize our society's preoccupation with charts, polls, ratings, and statistics. For his piece Every Icon (1988-2004), John F. Simon, Jr. developed a software program that instructs the computer to run through all the possible combinations of black and white squares on a grid, line by line. The title of the artwork refers to the idea that a computer could eventually produce every possible image in this scenario if given enough time, which in this case would be several hundred trillion years.
This exhibition is organized and circulated by the Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota Duluth, and is accompanied by a catalogue, available for sale at the University Museums. Peter Spooner, Curator at the Tweed and curator of the exhibition will give a lecture on the exhibition on Monday, October 25 at 7 p.m. In conjunction with New Math, contemporary artist Anne Morgan Spalter will be speaking about her work on Thursday, November 4, at 7 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.
The exhibition and lectures presented by the University of Richmond Museums are made possible in part with the support of the University's Cultural Affairs Committee, the University's Mathematics and Computer Science Department, and the Department of Art and Art History. Spalter's lecture is sponsored in part by the Richmond Quest III, a two-year focus by University of Richmond students, faculty, and staff on a broad and pervasive question that confronts the academic world and contemporary society.
PROGRAMMING
Lecture, Monday, October 25, 2004, 7 - 9 p.m.
"Art, Math, and Instinct," Peter Spooner, Curator, Tweed Museum
of Art, University of Minnesota, Duluth, and curator of the exhibition
Cousins Studio Theatre, Modlin Center for the Arts
8 - 9 p.m., Reception and preview of the exhibition, New Math: Contemporary Art and the Mathematical Instinct, Booth Lobby, Marsh Art Gallery, University of Richmond Museums, Modlin Center for the Arts
Lecture, Thursday, November 4, 7 - 9 p.m.
"Visual Thinking/Visual Computing," Anne Morgan Spalter, Visual
Computing Researcher and Artist in Residence, Brown University Graphics
Research
Cousins Studio Theatre, Modlin Center for the Arts
8 - 9 p. m., Viewing of the exhibition, New Math: Contemporary Art and the Mathematical Instinct, Marsh Art Gallery, University of Richmond Museums, Modlin Center for the Arts
Admission to the University of Richmond Museums and to the events mentioned above is free and open to the public.