Sol LeWitt, Form Derived from a Cube, 1986, Dauerleihgabe Österreichische, Ludwigstiftung, © VBK Wien, 2008.

MUMOK
Museum Moderner Kunst
Stiftung Ludwig Vienna
MuseumsQuartier
Museumsplatz 1
+43-1-525 00
Vienna
Exact and different,
Art and Mathematics
from Dürer to Sol LeWitt
February 29-May 18, 2008

Exact and Different investigates the influence mathematics has had on art in the 20th century while at the same time drawing analogies to other periods. More than 300 works from 120 artists demonstrate how questions of mathematics have influenced art in the 20th century — also how these mathematical and geometrical systems were overcome as other forms of knowledge were sought to be produced.

With the rediscovery of central perspective during the Renaissance, the relationship between art and mathematics would once again become closer. During the 15th century in Italy, artists and theorists of art published books about the construction of pictorial space and geometric bodies. Albrecht Dürer — artist and mathematician in one person — would bring back the knowledge he gained in Italy to central Europe. His etching “Melencholia I”, which still puzzles us to this day, not only portrays a prominent polyhedron and sextant but also a “magic square” whose rows, columns and diagonals sum to 34.

Beginning in the 20th century, it is precisely in turning away from central perspective that the artist again looks for inspiration in mathematics. Non-Euclidean geometries, n-dimension spaces in mathematics and physics along with the notion of curved space in Einstein’s theory of relativity make the traditional notion of space organized by central perspective begin to seem like a thing of the past. Artists such as Juan Gris, Henri Laurens or Giacomo Balla react to this paradigm shift with the multiple perspectives of cubism, the segmentation of reality into geometrical building blocks along with the simultaneousness of movement in Futurism. The corresponding abstraction and detachment from phenomenal reality would then culminate in concrete art, where Theo van Doesburg, Georges Vantongerloo or Max Bill would champion the use of pure forms of art based on geometrical forms. In all of these cases, mathematics provides the basis for these demands and ideals.

Beginning with Kasimir Malevitsch, the square itself would again and again return as the object of painting. Countless artists, from Paul Klee to Herbert Bayer, from Samuel Beckett to Bruce Nauman, from Heinz Gappmayr to Peter Weibel have created their own interpretations based on this simple form.

Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray and Surrealists such as Max Ernst were interested in natural sciences and mathematics, especially Henri Poincaré’s work. Likewise Constructivists such as Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner were inspired by the models found in mathematics institutes and books.

The convergence of art and mathematics is again important in the 1960s where Carl Andre, Donald Judd and Sol LeWitt would often resort to formally reduced, systematic and serial works with simple geometric primary forms. Ruth Vollmer also studied geometrical figures and mathematical models. The visualization of arithmetic systems places Sol LeWitt’s and Hanne Darboven’s works in proximity to algorithms, while at the same time computer art was beginning to be explored.

A catalog will be published along with the exhibition with contributions by Dieter Bogner, Wolfgang Drechsler, Michael Rottmann, Peter Schreiber, Rudolf Taschner and Gabriele Werner.

Max Bill, Quinze variations sur une meme theme, 135-38, Lithographie, 32 X 30 cm, © VBK, Wien 2008, Sammlung Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich.