Exploring the Invisible.: Art Science and The Spiritual - Softcover

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2003
"Sumptuously illustrated--the illustrations being an active part of the argument--Lynn Gamwell's Exploring the Invisible is a major
contribution."--George Steiner, Times Literary Supplement

"This beautifully illustrated volume is a surprising synthesis of two seemingly disparate cultures: a revealing look at more than a century of science and the art it has influenced. Gamwell . . . brings her rare and expansive view of creativity to bear on the impulses common to both pursuits. . . . Ultimately, Gamwell argues for the direct relationship between scientific knowledge and abstract art, and after such an eloquent and visually exciting journey, the link is perfectly clear."--Publishers Weekly

"Exploring the Invisible: Art, Science, and the Spiritual is an extremely handsome and well-produced volume. . . . When all is said and done, Gamwell succeeds in making her case that the science, the culture, and the art move and change together."--Ezra Shahn, Science

"Gamwell deals deftly with both the art and the science. With 364 illustrations and an unusual linkage of art and science, her book stimulates both the eye and the mind."--Scientific American

"Text and images flow nicely from epoch to epoch, as Gamwell illustrates the zeitgeists that created some of the world's great ideas."--Library Journal

"Rich in detail, and sumptuously illustrated and produced; it displays a lifetime of knowledge."--Philip J. Davis, SIAM News

"Gamwell, a very well-informed author, offers an innovative and stimulating work. . . . Exceptionally well written, eminently readable, and lavishly illustrated with color and black-and-white plates that significantly illuminate the points made in the text."--Choice

"The phrase 'lavishly illustrated' is bandied around too freely, but here it is more than justified. Ms. Gamwell and her picture editor have come up with a combination of classic works of art along with ones a bit more off the beaten track that makes up for a very appealing mixture. . . . A book that would be an ideal present for anyone whose interests traverse the arts and sciences."--Tom Cobbe, The Art Newspaper

"Exploring the Invisible is not just a coherent history of two centuries of scientific discoveries of the invisible world (although maybe visible through microscope or telescope). It is also a history of ideas expressed either through philosophy or articulated by artists. . . . [After reading it] the scope of one's imagination has taken a sudden leap, able to embrace the plethora of structures in the natural and cosmic worlds because a coherent picture has been painted, theories of science made understandable and integrated into an artistic search for the reality of a beautiful and ordered universe."--Patricia Railing, The Art Book

This sumptuous and stunningly illustrated book shows through words and images how directly, profoundly, and indisputably modern science has transformed modern art.

Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, a strange and exciting new world came into focus--a world of microorganisms in myriad shapes and colors, prehistoric fossils, bizarre undersea creatures, spectrums of light and sound, molecules of water, and atomic particles. Exploring the Invisible reveals that the world beyond the naked eye--made visible by advances in science--has been a major inspiration for artists ever since, influencing the subjects they choose as well as their techniques and modes of representation.

Lynn Gamwell traces the evolution of abstract art through several waves, beginning with Romanticism. She shows how new windows into telescopic and microscopic realms--combined with the growing explanatory importance of mathematics and new definitions of beauty derived from science--broadly and profoundly influenced Western art. Art increasingly reflected our more complex understanding of reality through increasing abstraction. For example, a German physiologist's famous demonstration that color is not in the world but in the mind influenced Monet's revolutionary painting with light. As the first wave of enthusiasm for science crested, abstract art emerged in Brussels and Munich. By 1914, it could be found from Moscow to Paris.

Throughout the book are beautiful images from both science and art--some well known, others rare--that reveal the scientific sources mined by Impressionist and Symbolist painters, Art Nouveau sculptors and architects, Cubists, and other nineteenth- and twentieth-century artists.

With a foreword by astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson, Exploring the Invisible appears in an age when both artists and scientists are exploring the deepest meanings of life, consciousness, and the universe.