As I'm sitting here reading and journaling -- revisiting cubism for a project I'm working on -- I am reminded of the influence of science and particularly of the mathematical sciences on art. In Arthur Millers recent book he remarks that "Mathematicians, philosophers and physicists at the beginning of the 20th century were recognising that many absolute truths were convenient caricatures of a universe that might be far stranger, far further from common sense than anyone thought ." It was from such notions of relativism offered by their mathematician contemporaries that Pablo Picasso and George Braque (the leaders of the cubist movement) developed their artistic creativity.
I think Jonathan Jones of the Tate Gallery in London sumed it up nicely when he said, "Cubism is like a maths exam at the gateway to modern art. The paintings are uniquely unyielding... Paradoxically, cubism is difficult not because it is abstract but because it is descriptive." While trying to edit my own creative output, I'm finding in this statement great food for thought!!!!
