Aesthetic Intersections
Kronecker, Einstein and the Cross
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Michel Tombroff
Two eminent scientists, the German mathematician Leopold Kronecker, and the German-born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, made comments in which they refer to God in their respective rebuttals of the theory of transcendental and transfinite numbers and of the consequences of quantum theory. The apparent contradiction between the objective activity of science and the subjective experience of faith has been the subject of numerous commentaries over the centuries by scientists and philosophers, and a source of inspiration to many artists. In this paper, I present a brief review of this science vs. God dichotomy, starting with Voltaire’s “God the watchmaker.” I then describe my two recent artworks, The Necessity of Chance and The Work of Man, inspired by Kronecker’s and Einstein’s statements. Finally, I explain why I, an atheist, chose the Christian cross as symbol for these artworks.
The Battle of Karbala: War Images in Art
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Edith Georgi
In my studies of Islam, I encountered the powerful 19th century painting "Battle of Karbala" depicting the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of Prophet Muhammad, sacrificing himself and his tribe in a battle he was bound to lose, but which he had to fight in 680 CE. It is my contention that this painting belongs in the category of war art that includes Guernica, The Alexander Mosaic, Battle of San Romano, and Reuben's Horrors of War, as well as the photo Napalm Girl. In this paper I compare Karbala to the works mentioned and show its unique emergence as the result of 1200 years of oral representation, pardeh khani. This painting was a symbol even before it existed, and thus its making recognizes a critical intersection between historical event, culture, and art.
Van Gogh’s Yellow House: The Search for Community and Resources from Impressionism to Modernism
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Gordon Shockley
New art-related, organizational forms coincide with the search for resources from the late nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries. As state patronage is withdrawn, avant-garde artists search for new community. In this essay, I link the avant-garde artists’ search for resources with the creation of new, art-related organizational forms. The trajectory of this search runs begins with state-run salons and academies in the mid-nineteenth century; the rise of dealer-critic system and anti-salon alternative organizations and exhibitions of Impressionism; through the new institutional forms of Modernism. The state-run organization of the arts in the nineteenth century provide the backdrop to the organizational innovations of the Impressionist painters, such as the Salon des Refusés (1863), Société Anonyme des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs (1874), and Groupe des Artistes Indèpendants (1884). New institutional forms continued to proliferate within Modernism before and in the immediate aftermath of the Great War, such as Bauhaus (established in 1919 in Weimar, Germany); formal artist groups such as Der Blaue Reiter (1910-16) and Die Brücke (1905-1914); and epic, alternative exhibitions such as the Armory Show (1913). Further, artistic movements like Futurism, Cubism, Russian Futurism and Suprematism, and Constructivism all included to conceptions of space and organization. Yet, it is not simply the search for resources and new organizational that defines this period. It is also a search for community, transforming the function of art in society.
