ArtiFact #6: Leonard Shlain's Art & Physics | Alex Sheremet, Joel Parrish

Leonard Shlain (1937 - 2009) was a surgeon, inventor, and author whose 1991 book "Art & Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light" shaped much of our artistic thinking. Shlain’s core argument is: the great (visual) artists are visionaries who are able to presage discoveries in other fields by cultivating their own, more individualistic work. But how can we actually use Leonard Shlain’s theories for understanding individual works of art? And is this form of analysis enough?

You can also watch this episode on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nbQp9mGnHs

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Joel's website: https://poeticimport.com

Read Alex’s (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com

Music sample: Lowkemia - "Lorem Ipsum" (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Timestamps:

0:00 – Defining Leonard Shlain’s core argument 5:20 – Does art ‘merely’ organize one’s perceptions? 9:28 – Joel: people don’t want to parse out ambiguous terms 11:05 – Alex: nonvisual artists prefigure reality, as well 19:38 – Why society laughs at innovators 25:12 – Joel opines on the mutual benefits of art/science 29:30 – Euclidean geometry in ancient art 34:40 – Alex: art over-compensates for new knowledge 39:30 – Mosaic in the Middle Ages: Shlain’s “just-so” story? 44:00 – Giotto’s proto-perspective 48:57 – Joel on the need to contextualize Giotto & period art 55:05 – Alex: every artistic “problem” forces its own solution 57:50 – A few words on Leonardo da Vinci 01:05:56 – Joel shows off his woolen lamb 01:09:47 – Rembrandt’s use of chiaroscuro 01:13:54 – Edouard Manet’s “Luncheon on the Grass” 01:36:21 – Claude Monet’s Rouen Cathedral series 01:50:04 – Van Gogh’s “Wheatfield with Crows” 02:01:32 – Henri Matisse’s “The Dance” 02:12:21 – Leonard Shlain’s argument for Cubism 02:17:38 – Pablo Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” 02:29:50 – Alex: Marcel Duchamp was a lot more mature than big-name Modernists 02:32:52 – Marc Chagall's "I And The Village" 02:36:43 – Leonard Shlain on Asian art 03:01:49 – Hokusai's "36 Views of Mount Fuji" 03:43:17 – What does today’s art tell us about society?