Particles and Waves: Southern California Abstraction and Science
1945–1990
Edited with text by Michael Duncan, Sharrissa Iqbal. Text by Camille Fremontier-Murphy, Roger Malina, W. Patrick McCray, Matthew Simms, Jason Weems.
An interdisciplinary guide to the 20th-century Southern California–based artists who investigated phenomena from the realms of optical science, astronomy, aerospace engineering and math
The synergy between art and science is an age-old tale; artists throughout time, from Leonardo da Vinci to Beeple, have incorporated newly discovered scientific theories and techniques into their practices. The PST ART project Particles and Waves: Southern California Abstraction and Science explores a particularly fecund yet underexplored period in the history of art and science’s cross-fertilization. The development of postwar industry and research in Southern California inspired a host of artistic innovations; for decades, abstract artists from the region experimented with color, form and mediums, variously employing ideas or procedures gleaned from the latest developments in physics, astronomy and mathematics. Particles and Waves unites several generations of artists working in diverse materials and styles to visualize light, energy, motion and time. Boasting a gorgeous cover, the volume features a wide array of artists and topics, from Man Ray’s paintings of mathematical models to Lee Mullican’s computer-inspired abstractions, and from to the West Coast Minimalists and Light and Space artists’ (including Mary Corse, Fred Eversley and James Turrell) rigorous studies of light to Bettina Brendel and Helen Lundeberg’s investigations of scale through their paintings of subatomic and astronomical subjects.
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In Particles and Waves: Southern California Abstraction and Science, published to accompany the PST exhibition on view now at Palm Springs Museum of Art, Michael Duncan notes that “art is ultimately not science but something that can use science to create the indefinable, ineffable, and other.” He cites Albert Einstein’s 1930 essay, The World As I See It. “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was this experience of mystery—even if mixed with fear—that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds—it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity: in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man.” Pictured here, a still from John and James Whitney’s 16mm film Five Film Exercise #4 (1943–45). continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9.75 x 11.75 in. / 176 pgs / 120 color / 25 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $60.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $87.5 GBP £52.00 ISBN: 9781636811383 PUBLISHER: DelMonico Books/Palm Springs Art Museum AVAILABLE: 9/3/2024 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Particles and Waves: Southern California Abstraction and Science 1945–1990
Published by DelMonico Books/Palm Springs Art Museum. Edited with text by Michael Duncan, Sharrissa Iqbal. Text by Camille Fremontier-Murphy, Roger Malina, W. Patrick McCray, Matthew Simms, Jason Weems.
An interdisciplinary guide to the 20th-century Southern California–based artists who investigated phenomena from the realms of optical science, astronomy, aerospace engineering and math
The synergy between art and science is an age-old tale; artists throughout time, from Leonardo da Vinci to Beeple, have incorporated newly discovered scientific theories and techniques into their practices. The PST ART project Particles and Waves: Southern California Abstraction and Science explores a particularly fecund yet underexplored period in the history of art and science’s cross-fertilization. The development of postwar industry and research in Southern California inspired a host of artistic innovations; for decades, abstract artists from the region experimented with color, form and mediums, variously employing ideas or procedures gleaned from the latest developments in physics, astronomy and mathematics.
Particles and Waves unites several generations of artists working in diverse materials and styles to visualize light, energy, motion and time. Boasting a gorgeous cover, the volume features a wide array of artists and topics, from Man Ray’s paintings of mathematical models to Lee Mullican’s computer-inspired abstractions, and from to the West Coast Minimalists and Light and Space artists’ (including Mary Corse, Fred Eversley and James Turrell) rigorous studies of light to Bettina Brendel and Helen Lundeberg’s investigations of scale through their paintings of subatomic and astronomical subjects.
