Skip to main content

Abstraction: Pure Thought

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Close Encounters of Art and Physics
  • 323 Accesses

Abstract

“Modern artists”, just like “modern scientists”, are continuously searching and exploring the unknown—whatever we don’t know, whatever appears mysterious. Abstract ideas seem better suited to pursue this quest and to express the necessarily more and more abstract, yet more and more powerful new concepts. Artists like the painters Kandinsky, Rothko, Pollock, Klee, and many others appeared on the art scene in the 1940s and 1950s with almost exclusively abstract works. At about the same time, physicists were also exploring the unknown through more abstract ideas, following the developments of quantum theory and the special and general theories of relativity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 29.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 37.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 37.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Pesce, L. (2019). Abstraction: Pure Thought. In: Close Encounters of Art and Physics . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22730-2_9

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics