29 February 2008 – 18 May 2008

Exact + Different - Mathematics in Art from Dürer to Sol LeWitt

This large-scale exhibition investigates the relationship between two traditionally related but nonetheless often separately considered disciplines: mathematics and art – two worlds that since the Renaissance, if not longer, have displayed surprising parallel tendencies and whose reciprocal development made possible many of the developments of modern art in the early 20th century. In this vein, Cezanne’s famous dictum that 'everything in nature models itself on the sphere, cone and cylinder' shows signs of the influence of mathematical thought on the visual arts. This exhibition explores the complex interrelationship with works ranging from Dürer to Duchamp, from Man Ray, Kazimir Malevich, Carl Andre and Ruth Vollmer to Sol LeWitt.

The fascination with geometrical forms in art throughout history represents a central concern of the exhibition beginning with bold perspectival constructions from the 15th century and with Albrecht Dürer’s Melencholia I from 1514 leading up to modern art. Cubism is seen in the context of being a reaction to new developments in science using the simultaneous representation of many different perspectives at once and in Futurism the concurrence of different phases of movement. The complete abstraction of external reality finally culminates in concrete art made of pure artistic forms.

A catalog will be published along with the exhibition with contributions by Wolfgang Drechsler, Gabriele Werner, Dieter Bogner, Peter Schreiber, Rudolf Taschner and Michael Rottmann.

Address

MUMOK Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien
MuseumsQuartier Museumsplatz 1
1070 Wien
phone +43 1 525 00
http://www.mumok.at

Opening Hours

Daily 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Thursday till 9 p.m..

Description of the Museum

The collection consists in classical modernism (Kandinsky, Klee, Magritte...)

New building opened 2001; architects: Ortner & Ortner

Within 10 days
starting exhibitions
ending exhibitions