Leonardo

Paintings Inspired by Biological FormsAuthor(s): Nicole d'AgaggioSource: Leonardo, Vol. 22, No. 1, Art and the New Biology: Biological Forms and Patterns(1989), pp. 47-48Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1575138 .

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Paintings Inspired by

Biological Forms

Nicole d 'Agaggio

R elations between art and science have al-

ways existed. But nowadays such relations are so strong that

they produce a real metamorphosis of art [1]. This inspired my large painting called Metamorphosis (Fig. 1), which pro- vides a kind of historical survey of the relations between art and science during the twentieth century.

The painting is divided into four sections. In the first sec- tion, I focused on artists who have been inspired by scien- tific concepts and theories from such fields as geometry, classical mechanics, microphysics and wave mechanics. Con- structivism is represented by some of the pioneer works of Malevich, Mondrian, Delaunay, Arp and Soto; Op Art by the works of Albers, Vasarely and Garcia Rossi; and Kinetic Art

by one of Calder's mobiles and one of Tinguely's 'meta-me- chanics'. I devoted the last segment of this section to artists who find their inspiration in the contemporary sciences, artists such as Bettina Brendel, who has referred to particles and waves in her paintings [2], and Norberto Iera, who finds sensual delight in the electronic isodensity map and uses it to enhance the shapes of a girl's body. I have included my- self as an artist who has illustrated the three main principles of wave mechanics, which are as follows: (1) With each prop-

erty a hermitian operator is as- sociated; a precise measure of this property coincides with an

eigenvalue of the operator. (2) The evolution of the wave function associated with ele- mentary particles is repre- sented by the equation shown in my painting. (3) The prob- ability of finding for the measure of a property a partic- ular eigenvalue of the operator is the square of the projection of the wave function on the cor-

responding eigenfunction. In the second section of the

painting, I was concerned with artists who integrate technical

products into their work, for ex-

ample, Chryssa, who uses neon tubes, and Milton Komisar,

ABSTRACT

The author describes her paint- ings inspired by molecules of bio- chemical interest. Such are Les Premieres molecules vivantes, evoking the production on Earth of the first molecules capable of supporting life, and Accouplement moleculaire, devoted to the cou- pling between cytosine and guanine, which constitutes the basis of the genetic message. The second part of the paper is con- cerned with paintings inspired by biological phenomena such as the replication of DNA molecules, neuro- transmitter molecules and the chemistry of love.

who has built moving sculptures, such as Nisus, using a com-

plex network of clear acrylic rods. I also depicted examples Nicole d'Agaggio (artist), European Academy of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, 60, rue of work by artists who play with light, such as Julio Le Par Monsieur-le-Prince, 75006 Paris, France. ad O o and Otto Piene. Received 29 December 1987.

The third section represents the new means of expres-

Fig. 1. Metamor- phosis, oil on can- vas, 700 x 220 cm, 1986. Detail of the central part.

?1989 SAST Pergamon Press pic. Printed in Great Britain. 0024-094X/89 $3.00+0.00 LEONARDO, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 47-48, 1989 47

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sion. Here I included a work created

by the group 'bcd' (Vladimir Bonacic, Cimerman, Dunja Donassy) to ex-

plore the Galois field with the help of a computer [3], and a painting by Land and Cohen that was made with the same kind of apparatus, corre-

sponding to the early use of the com-

puter to produce works of art. A work

by Ludwig Rehberg evokes the type of video art initiated by Nam June Paik, and a cat byJames Durand represents electrography.

The last section, which is devoted to the aesthetic dimension of science, depicts a dragon obtained by Benoit Mandelbrot using a simple mathe- matical formula and an image of a human organ obtained using nuclear

magnetic resonance. The entire painting is crossed by

many lines depicting laser beams, evoking the 'polytopes' of Iannis Xenakis. This painting is an act of love towards the many artists who have es- tablished bridges between science and art.

PAINTINGS INSPIRED BY MOLECULES OF BIOCHEMICAL INTEREST For a long time, artists have been

inspired by biological forms and pat- terns. The anatomical drawings made

by Leonardo da Vinci between 1510 and 1514 are considered works of art. To illustrate a book that presents a molecular vision of the world, I made

paintings inspired by molecules of bio- chemical interest [4].

Three billion years ago, the atmos-

phere of our planet was different from what it is now. It is believed that the at-

mosphere was made of simple com-

pounds of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen, i.e. methane, ammonia and water. Under the effect of the

light from the sun, of lightning and of the heat from volcanoes, this mixture of gas produced the first molecules

capable of supporting life. In 1953, Stanley Miller, in his laboratory, was able to reproduce this phenomenon, which can be considered one of the origins of life on Earth [5].

One of my paintings, Les Premieres molecules vivantes (The first living molecules), evokes this marriage of air with the water of the sea under the effect of light and fire. Another paint- ing, Accouplement Moleculaire (Molecu- lar coupling), has as its theme my ar- tistic conception of the bonding of the molecules cytosine and guanine, which contribute to forming the DNA chains that code genetic information [6]. The effect of transparency in the

painting is intended to imply that, on a molecular scale, the volume occu-

pied by the elementary particles of a molecule is relatively small compared to the volume of the molecule.

PAINTINGS INSPIRED BY BIOLOGICAL PHENOMENA I have devoted one of my paintings to the replication of the DNA molecule. This painting, Le Message genetique (The genetic message), shows the double helix of a part of a DNA mole- cule producing two identical double helixes. Cellular mechanisms also in- terest me. One of my paintings, La Ma- chinerie cellulaire (The cellular machin-

ery), evokes a ribosome working to

produce a protein molecule with the

help of messenger RNA. And inspired by the French biologist Francois

Jacob's statement that the dream of a cell is to become two cells, I made a

painting evoking mitosis, entitled Desir cellulaire (Cellular desire).

For me, the neurotransmitter mole- cules, which are responsible for the

functioning of our brain, are espe- cially intriguing. I have made two

paintings about them. The first one

simply shows transmitter molecules between two neurons and is entitled Molecules support de la pensee (Molecules supporting thought). The second one

is a large painting (7 x 2 m) devoted to the chemistry of love (Color Plate A, No. 3) [7]. It is divided into three parts, each panel evoking one of the phases of love: attraction, ecstasy, disenchantment. The various mol- ecules that cause the corresponding feelings by linking certain neurons ap- pear in the center of each panel. For

example, during ecstasy, the mol- ecules causing pleasure appear, rep- resented by gold spots. During dis- enchantment, the molecules causing sadness appear, represented by black

spots. The familiar circuits of pleasure and anguish are evoked in the first panel of this work.

I have also made paintings that relate to more abstract theories, such as the principles of wave mechanics. I like to use my abstract way of painting to evoke the abstract scientific con-

cepts and theories that point in the direction of'hyperabstraction' [8].

References and Notes 1. For more details, see R. Daudel, Revue des Ques- tions Scientifiques 154, 3 (1983); and N. Lemaire- d'Agaggio, "Les Sciences exactes inspiratrices des Arts plastiques pendant la deuxieme partie dt vingtieme siecle" (Thesis, Universite de Paris, 1986).

2. See Bettina Brendel, "Atomic Length-A Basic Unit in Physics-as a Visual Metaphor in Art", Leonardo21, No. 3, 247-250 (1988).

3. See Vladimir Bonacic, "A Transcendental Con- cept for Cybernetic Art in the 21st Century", in this same issue of Leonardo.

4. R. Daudel and N. d'Agaggio, Vision Moleculaire du Monde (Paris: Hachette and CNRS, 1981).

5. For further information, seeJ. de Rosnay, Bio- genese (Masson, 1967).

6. Max Alfert, in his article "Creativity and Merit in Art and Science", Leonardo 19, No. 4, 323-328 (1986), reproduces this painting as an example of how the pleasing geometry of the Watson and Crick model can inspire some artists.

7. This painting has been reproduced in R. Daudel, J. F. Franca, A. Glibota, R. Huyghe, C. Langlois, A. Lanoux, P. Roberts-Jones, S. Jong Wang, N. d'Agaggio, "La Voltupt dans l'Hyperab- straction" (in English and French) (Paris: Paris Art Center, 1985).

8. Nicole Lemaire d'Agaggio, "Towards 'Hyper- abstraction': On My Nonfigurative Paintings In- volving Scientific Concepts of the Origin of the Universe and of Living Cells", Leonardo 15, No. 2, 120-122 (1982).

48 d Agaggio, Paintings Inspired by Biological Forms

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