THE EXHIBITION
From February 3 through March 18, the Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery
at Hunter College presents Deep Field Painting, an exhibition of work by 11 artists exploring the relationship between abstract painting and the Hubble Space Telescope's Deep Field Image, the well-known photograph depicting the furthest reaches of space.
The work of the painters in the show--Eve Aschheim, Walter Biggs, Henry Brown, Stephen Ellis, Linda Francis, Robert Hall, Paul Mogensen, Doug Ohlson, Richard Tsao, Joan Waltemath
and John Zinsser—are not only inspired by contemporary science, but are a product of disciplined exploration. Thus, their work illustrates the not-so-obvious kinship between the practice of
art and science. The Hubble Deep Field Image has been widely reproduced on the World Wide Web, by National Geographic magazine, the Discovery Channel, and many other media
since its public release in 1996. At first glance, the photo looks like any generic shot of outer-space—a hundred or so dim stars silently burning against a black void. Yet a closer
look reveals the "spiral arms" of about 1,500 individual galaxies--colossal island universes speeding away from us with tremendous velocity. This peek into the furthest region of
the visible universe allows for an entirely new conception of space—both as it relates to such scientific theories as the Big Bang and Unified Field Theory—and as a two-dimensional image of the
largest possible existing three-dimensional field. The artists included in Deep Field Painting are engaged with many of the same ideas that make the Hubble Deep Field Image
interesting and important. For example, like many other artists exhibiting here, Eve Aschheim uses math in her work. In her case, she employs complex three-dimensional Riemannian
geometry used in Superstring Theory and other cosmological models. Joan Waltemath's paintings are composed through the application of logarithms and other exponential functions, and play
wildly with universal scale. Other works included in Deep Field Painting are more materially oriented. Walter Biggs uses a unique compounding process with elemental materials
to make paintings with the same properties as crude mirrors. Paul Mogensen's new paintings deal with spiral space and axial motion, mimicking the mechanics of the heavenly bodies.
Doug Ohlson's work addresses an infinite depth of field in painting analogous to the Hubble Deep Field Image. Richard Tsao's work reveals the power of manipulated image and color, and is inspired
by computer-enhanced images of the planet. These painters make evident that the methodologies of art and science are similar. Both begin with intellectual speculation; ideas
are then jostled around until the right kinds of questions form. The questions are followed by exploration within the medium, and—if the exploration is successful—the larger body of
knowledge is expanded. Many artists have pushed their way through the limitless expanse of the painted field in the same pioneering spirit as Hubble exploring the nebulae.
Both artists and scientists alike work against uncertainty, both personal and cultural. Since our theories tend to accumulate more rapidly than our experimental base, the most important
developments in abstract painting, like astronomy, might still be several generations away.
Year 2000 Exhibition Schedule |
