Are art and science separated by an unbridgeable divide? Can they
find common ground? In this new book, neuroscientist Eric R.
Kandel, whose remarkable scientific career and deep interest in art
give him a unique perspective, demonstrates how science can inform
the way we experience a work of art and seek to understand its
meaning. Kandel illustrates how reductionism-the distillation of
larger scientific or aesthetic concepts into smaller, more
tractable components-has been used by scientists and artists alike
to pursue their respective truths. He draws on his Nobel
Prize-winning work revealing the neurobiological underpinnings of
learning and memory in sea slugs to shed light on the complex
workings of the mental processes of higher animals. In Reductionism
in Art and Brain Science, Kandel shows how this radically
reductionist approach, applied to the most complex puzzle of our
time-the brain-has been employed by modern artists who distill
their subjective world into color, form, and light. Kandel
demonstrates through bottom-up sensory and top-down cognitive
functions how science can explore the complexities of human
perception and help us to perceive, appreciate, and understand
great works of art. At the heart of the book is an elegant
elucidation of the contribution of reductionism to the evolution of
modern art and its role in a monumental shift in artistic
perspective. Reductionism steered the transition from figurative
art to the first explorations of abstract art reflected in the
works of Turner, Monet, Kandinsky, Schoenberg, and Mondrian. Kandel
explains how, in the postwar era, Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko,
Louis, Turrell, and Flavin used a reductionist approach to arrive
at their abstract expressionism and how Katz, Warhol, Close, and
Sandback built upon the advances of the New York School to
reimagine figurative and minimal art. Featuring captivating
drawings of the brain alongside full-color reproductions of modern
art masterpieces, this book draws out the common concerns of
science and art and how they illuminate each other.
General
Imprint: |
Columbia University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
June 2018 |
Authors: |
Eric Kandel
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 15mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - Trade
|
Pages: |
240 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-231-17963-8 |
Categories: |
Books >
Arts & Architecture >
The arts: general issues >
General
|
LSN: |
0-231-17963-4 |
Barcode: |
9780231179638 |
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