Concrete art - meaning of mathematics, geometry and proportions for aesthetics and artistic work

There are many inspirations for art. Beauty, anger, grief and religion are responsible for an infinite abundance of works in cultural history.

, geometric art has a little more sober which - as the Art Concret formulated - does not devote itself to the mapping of something real or tangible, but locates its entire source in mathematics and scientific thinking. However, this approach not only creates its own exciting and easily accessible works, it is also surprisingly widespread in art history.

Concrete art - basic ideas, important artists and history

The claim of concrete art is significantly less complex than many assume. It is not a constructivist art and not abstract . Because while the latter abstract real world phenomena, concrete art only creates something about something mentally .

It is a geometric art does not put the audience in front of the riddle of any symbolism, but is derived from somewhat understandable, provable.

Especially because it does not feel feelings, it is a sensually experienced art . The observer can concentrate fully on the interaction of the shapes and colors . Instead of translating something experienced on a material, he can deal with the material itself. This art immediately produces aesthetic suggestions and its order systems.

The concrete art has numerous sponsors and forerunners, not only in art itself, but also in mathematics and natural sciences. For example, there is close relatives to the Bauhaus or Cubism . Since the turn of the century, artists have increasingly distanced themselves from the image of the visible.

However, the formal starting point of the movement is often only located at Kasimir Malewitsch's "black square" painting from 1915. This broke consistently with the previously prevailing art tradition.

de Stijl movement dealt with similar aesthetic concepts in the Netherlands at the same time in the Netherlands. This group of painters, architects, designers and editors around artists such as Theo van Doesburg , Georges Vantongerloo and Piet Mondrian confessed to ascetic style and functionality.

So it was Theo van Doesburg, who gave its name to the concrete art in 1924. The guidelines of the new movement were then formalized by founding the Art Concret group , which in 1930 summarized a broad style of the unconscious, geometric art .

The group was deprived of the realistic ways of representing the realistic way of presenting and the fascination with the inexplicable of Dadaism . the group also wanted to counter the anti -rational position of surrealism Although the Art Concret soon dissolved, its positions have not only existed in art, but also in adjacent subjects such as architecture or design.

Can offices and traffic signs be concrete art?

Dr. Simone Schimpf is the director of the Museum of Comfortable Art in Ingolstadt and Chair of the Foundation for concrete art and design.

Pythagoras and its influence on aesthetics and art

Pythagoras from Samos is still a puzzling person despite its celebrities. Praised by some as a pioneer of Greek science, mathematics and philosophy, he was mainly an activist on behalf of religion for others. However, its influence on artistic aesthetics is largely undisputed.

Here, too, the historical double function of Samos Pythagoras becomes clear. Idea of ​​holistic sense of harmony and theory of soul mingle with mathematical derivations.

In late antiquity and the Middle Ages, the view was spread that Pythagoras was the founder of mathematics. Above all, he was considered the discoverer of the Pythagora sentence . The latter says that in a right -angled triangle the second potency of the longest side is equal to the sum of the second potencies of the shorter side.

As Leonardo da Vinci showed the sentence of the Pythagoras

What is special about the proof of the pythagora of Leonardo da Vinci is that he leads it optically-logically . It works as follows:

If you introduce yourself to a right -angled triangle with the corners A, B and C and take on the right angle at C, then you can visually imagine the two cathete squares (i.e. the shorter sides), the diagonals of which form a straight g through point C. The original triangle is now mirrored on the straight g. Both triangles together with the squares now form a hexagon.

Now the original triangle is doubled again and added to the opposite side of the fictional hypotenous squad. Here, too, the hypotenusen square with the two triangles forms a hexagon. If you now turn this hexagon around the corners A or B of the original triangle, you find that both hexagon corner are congruent.

Since a hexagon now consists of the hypotenusen square and two triangles of origin and the other from the latter and two cathetand squares, the four triangles (with maintaining the area ratio of the hexagon corner) can simply be thought away. So you come to the conclusion that the two cathetand squares have to be as large as the hypotenous square.

Fibonacci, the golden cut and other geometric concepts in art, photography and architecture

The concrete art occurred in order to find "pure expression of harmonious measure and law" Max Bill formulated. It is not surprising that the mathematical principle of the golden cut plays a prominent role in this art form. The conflict with artists such as Jo Niemeyer place almost identity.

Simply formulated, the golden cut means a division ratio in which a whole is divided into two parts of different sizes, so that the larger one is to the smaller in the same ratio as the whole part.

Again and again, individual artists and entire art currents in the course of the history of this relationship understood as particularly appealing, harmonious or otherwise interesting. There is no objective evidence of this. However, there are also numerous examples of this proportion in nature, for example when arranging leaves and flowers or crystal shapes.

The origin of this principle has not been clarified. However, there have been mentions in Greece, for example, since the 4th century BC. In Europe, the golden cut is often associated Fibonacci sequence The Italian mathematician tried to describe the growth of a rabbit population. The rule of this consequence of natural numbers is that the last two figures in the series are added and the next (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 ...).

The physicist Johannes Keppler later drew attention to the fact that the quotients consecutively approach the golden cut as required. The general connection fibonaccis to the golden cut is remarkable. Like the principle of the golden cut, the series of numbers was known long before its time - both in ancient Greece and in India. As a wide scientist, he should have known this and did not deal with the context.

It can be assumed that the golden cut used in art and architecture . In ancient Greece, the ratio of height and width has been aligned with this principle as well as the positioning of columns. Canonical works of the Renaissance such as Michelangelo's “The Creation of Adam” illustrate this mathematical relationship.

Mathematics and science in art

This is only a small overview of the influence of mathematical and scientific influences on art and our aesthetic feeling in general. Forms, the compilation of colors, material combinations - they can all be attributed to scientific principles.

In the interest of the viewer, it is always to make these covers.

Joachim Rodriguez y Romero

Owner and managing director of Kunstplaza. Publicist, editor and passionate blogger in the field of art, design and creativity since 2011. Successful conclusion in web design as part of a university degree (2008). Further development of creativity techniques through courses in free drawing, expression painting and theatre/acting. Profound knowledge of the art market through many years of journalistic research and numerous collaborations with actors/institutions from art and culture.

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