Letters = Lettres

Leonurdo,Vol. 3, pp. 131-133. Pergamon Press 1970. Printed in Great Britain LETTERS-LETTRES Readers’ commentsare welcomedon articlespublished in Leonardo. Ingeneral, short letters stand best chance o f publication. The Editors reserve the right to shorten lettersfor reasons o f space. Letters should be written in English or in French. La Redaction de Leonardo invite ses Iecteurs d h i faire parvenir de courts commentaires sur les articles parus dam la revue. Toutefois, elle se reserve le droit d‘abreger les lettres en cas de necessite. Les lettres doivent &re e‘crites en anglais ou enfrangais. THEBATTLEGROUNDOFSCIENCEANDART (cont.) Alcopley’s Note ‘On Art Fashions and the Artist’s Preoccupation with Science’ in Leonardo 2, 161 (1969) has clearly raised vital issuesjudging by the strong reactions it has provoked. I would like to comment on some points in his Note, in the letters of his critics, and in Malina’s article on a similar subject, ‘Differences entre la science et l’art: Quelques reflexions’ in Leonardo 1, 449 (1968). There seemto me to be two fairly separate matters raised by the relationship between art and science: -The first is the use that artists can make of the techniques that science or rather technology offer and the idea that by using these techniques artists unite, in a way, art and science. -The second is that of similarities that can exist at a deeper level between what art and science express. Concerning the possibility of using new materials and techniques that technology can supply to the artist, I personally prefer for my own use the simplest (which does not necessarily mean the most traditional) media that permit me to express most directly my thoughts. Nevertheless, it is clear that the more tools, materials and techniques an artist has at his disposal, the better. But in any case, what counts is not the medium itself but the idea that is expressed and the adequacy of the medium to expressit. I do not think that using one medium or another makes a work of art more ‘modern’. It is for each artist to decide which medium is best suited to his purpose. Pollock used the pierced can to amplify his gesture and this was well adapted to action painting. Motion can be dealt with in different ways and from differentpoints of view: one may wish to work with real motion, as in kinetic art, or to give an impression or illusion of motion on a two-dimensional surface. Clearly, however, a new medium creates a new aesthetic; a new equilibrium is established, similar, I suppose, to that which results in the cybernetic 131 model quoted in another connection by Malina. The examples of concrete music or electronic music with their own laws of composition and sensibility are particularly striking. But works of art that merely reproduce experiments in physics miss the main point of science. The beauty of a scientific experiment lies notinits appearancebut in theway it reveals, in an unambiguous way, laws of nature. Now let us consider the similarities between the aims and the meaning of art and of science. In a letter in Leonardo 2,328 (1969), Hoenich mentions the use of anatomy by the painters of the Renaissance . It is interesting to note how these painters used the new knowledge of anatomy. They thought that its mere use brought to their paintings special qualities and they despised earlier paintings that did not have anatomical accuracy. We now consider their use of anatomy as a means of expression which was useful, for instance, to Michelangelo, who made bulging musclesinto a new visual vocabulary. But anatomical accuracy no longer seems to us an aesthetic criterion and we appreciate primitive painting as much as Renaissance painting-art is not a lesson in anatomy. This example shows that the introduction of scientifictruth or accuracy in art is not an aesthetic quality in itself. The statement of Alcopley that ‘works of art should never be placed in a position of competing with works and objects of science and technology’ ismostimportant. If artand sciencewerecompeting in the discovery and expression of objective facts about the natural world, there can be no doubt that art would be the loser. It...