Abstract
The number, object and subject of paintings, sculptures, drawings, video, films, photographs and installations have revealed an aesthetic potential that had remained latent and unexpressed up until the first decades of the last century. For a long time, the number in figurative arts was only the result of a transitive counting, an answer to the question “How many?” Virtues, planets, apostles, ranks of angels, seasons, star signs, senses have been reproduced, personified, represented according to their number, in a correlation often tight enough to transcend into cliché (Rigon 2006).
An erratum to this chapter is available at 10.1007/978-90-481-8581-8_28
An erratum to this chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8581-8_28
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- 1.
See the entries Aritmetica and Mathematica taken from the 1611 Paduan edition of Cesare Ripa’s Iconology (respectively on pp. 30 and 328–329). “Arithmetic. A woman of handsome appearance, holding an iron hook in her right hand, a white board in her left and in the hem of her clothing the writing: Par et impar. The beauty will be a hint to the perfection of numbers, of which some Philosophers believed all things to be composed, and God, from which no other thing than perfection can proceed, made everything in number, in weight and measure, and this is the true subject of Arithmetic. The metal hook and the white board demonstrate that with those instruments we know the reason of various types of things and the things composed by the number, weight and measure of the Elements. The motto Par et impar declares what it is that gives all diversity to the accidents and all demonstrations. Arithmetic. [another definition contained in the same page]. A woman that holds in both hands a board with numbers and another one next to her feet on the ground”. “Mathematics. A middle-aged woman, dressed in a white transparent veil, with wings on her head, tresses down her shoulder, with a compass in her right hand, measuring a board bearing some figures and numbers and held by a young boy to whom she is talking and teaching, with the other hand she holds a large ball representing the earth with the hours and the celestial orbits and on her dress is a frieze depicting mathematical figures, with her bare feet on a base […]”.
- 2.
Two recent exhibitions had as their subject the numbers in visual art. For an initial exploration on the subject, please see the respective catalogues: Magie der Zahl in der Kunst des 20. Yahrhunderts, exhibition catalogue (Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie, 1 February–19 May 1997), curated by Karin v. Maur, Verlag Gerd Hatje, Ostfildern 1997, Numerica, exhibition catalogue (Siena, Palazzo delle Papesse, 22 June 2007–6 January 2008), curated by Marco Pierini, Silvana Editoriale, Cinisello Balsamo 2007.
- 3.
In this regard please see Bruno Corà, Alighieroeboetti, exhibition catalogue, Motta, Milano 2005, in particular the chapter Numerologia, ars combinatoria, pp. 151–157.
- 4.
Roman Opalka’s untitled text, from which the quote is taken, is contained in Opalka. 1965/1–∞, Galleria Melesi, Lecco 1995, pp. unnumbered.
- 5.
Jonathan Borofsky interviewed by Ann Curran, published on the Carnagie Mellon Magazine (Spring 2002).
- 6.
Please see Chronos. Il tempo nell’arte dall’epoca barocca all’età contemporanea, exhibition catalogue, curated by Andrea Busto, Edizioni Marcovaldo, Caraglio 2005. We have not forgotten – we only thought it went beyond the confines of this contribution – that time can also be measured backwards, in terms of the interval separating us from a given event. In this case the time being recorded is normally extremely limited, substituting the immediate expectation of an arrival point – a zero that resolves the tension, potentially establishing a new starting point – to a perspective of counting towards infinity. Among the artists who interpreted the countdown with intelligence and irony and those who stand out are Guy Sherwin, with his short film on 16 mm titled At the Academy (1974) and Aïda Ruilova (Countdowns 2004), who dealt with the theme of the countdown by extracting it from the usual contexts that the collective imagination immediately places them in a film, space launches, the passage to a new year and so on.
- 7.
Tatsuo Miyajima, exhibition catalogue, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva, Electa, Milano 2004, p. 151.
Bibliography
Arditi, F. (2003). Mel Bochner. Exhibition catalogue, Roma: Il Gabbiano.
Huxley, A. (1920). Eupompus gave Splendour to art by numbers. In Limbo.
Piazza, M. (2000). Intorno ai numeri. Oggetti, proprietà, finzioni utili. Milano: Bruno Mondadori.
Rigon, F. (2006). Arte dei numeri. Milano: Skira.
Williams, W. C. (1986). Sour grapes: A book of poems. Boston: Four Seas Company, 1921 now in Collected poems of William Carlos Williams: Vol. I 1909–1939. New York: New Directions.
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Bochner, M., Opalka, R., other Philarithmics. (2010). Art by Numbers. In: Capecchi, V., Buscema, M., Contucci, P., D'Amore, B. (eds) Applications of Mathematics in Models, Artificial Neural Networks and Arts. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8581-8_24
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