Mathematics & Art

Mathematics and Art have a long historical relationship and are related in many ways. Many mathematicians draw upon art and many artists draw upon mathematics. In fact, mathematics has been described as Art motivated by Beauty.

This holds true of all of the Arts, (Music, Dance, Painting, Design etc...) here I am referring to mathematics and it’s connection to the Visual Arts. Many of my favorite painters in fact, have referred to mathematics. Piera della Francesca with perspective, Albert Dürer made many references to mathematics and of course Leonardo da Vinci and his work with the golden ratio and beyond. Modern artists such as Mondrian, Kandinsky and Klee also used the grid system.

The piece I have posted here was inspired by Mathematics. In this case, the glider. I have rearranged the panels from my Abstract Landscape series (see my website)

The glider is a repeating pattern that travels across the lattice and Conway's game of life.

“The Game of Life, also known simply as Life, is a cellular automaton devised by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. It is a zero-player game, meaning that its evolution is determined by its initial state, requiring no further input. One interacts with the Game of Life by creating an initial configuration and observing how it evolves. It is Turing complete and can simulate a universal constructor or any other Turing machine.”

The original work of art posted here is what I call an Infinity Painting, based on the Glider, it is an abstract landscape based on this mathematical pattern that repeats diagonally into infinity. This is a painting to look at for a long time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrIO5RJ76D0