Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56833 in Books
• Published on: 1993-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Review
"Bold and persuasive...solidly researched and gracefully presented...Never before has such material been explored deeply and lucidly enough for non-specialists."--"San Francisco Chronicle""Provacative...passionate...[Shlain] is an engaging storyteller, skilled in the use of metaphor, analogy, and even imaginary journeys that at times are poetic."--"The New York Times Book Review""In eighteen years as an art critic I have not encountered more provacative insightful writing about art."--"Seattle Times""Leonard Shlain's "Art & Physics "is exquisite food for thought."--Fritjof Capra, author of "The Tao of Physics""A tour de force...A brilliant, accessible, and visionary look at the most revolutionary artists and scientists from the Golden Age of Greece to the present."--"Los Angeles Times Book Review"

Customer Reviews

Challenge your perception of the world...
...and read this book. A brilliant simultaneous history of western art and science relating dicoveries in science with coincidental insights by artists. This obviously well researched book explains the tenets of western science in language that makes understanding difficult concepts much easier, due to many useful illustrations and comparisons. With reference to myth, literature, culture and historical context you will find a well rounded view of the subject within these pages. Interspersed with beautiful quotes from scientists and artists alike, the book is a joy to read. This guy really has a grip on the bigger picture, and he's really helped me to see some more of it too.

Art and Physics
There are two main aspects to this book, firstly there is a very readable history of art and scientific achievements similar to something like Bill Bryson's "A short history of nearly everything" except with a strong focus on art - particularly post-impressionist art - and secondly the two histories are contrasted to illustrate an argument that art and science are related in the sense that when a society changes its ideas about the world, these changes are first 'visualised' through the work of artists before being formally articulated by scientists.

As far as the historic discussion is concerned I found the book hugely rewarding even if the basic argument is rejected. The book doesn't aim to cover every artistic movement or medium and certainly makes no claim to cover all scientific developments, but what is covered is done so admirably and complex ideas (such as relativity and quantum mechanics) are made exceptionally simple. Where the argument linking art to science is concerned however, I found the discussion a little unconvincing. For such a controversial idea there is very little space afforded to counter arguments or progressively making a case for Mr Shlain's position. Instead the book reads a little like a massive case study, where simply illustrating the similarities between certain artistic movements and developments in science is taken as proof that the two are linked in the manner outlined in the first chapter. In reality there are many plausible explanations relying on general social changes which could address the same phenomena, but none of these explanations are ever considered.

Overall then I've given this 4 stars as it's well researched, well written and genuinely rewarding as an overview of developments in western art and science, but the basic argument is never given a proper airing or defence against counter positions.