Modern Art and Modern Science: The Parallel Analysis of Vision

Vitz, Paul C., and Arnold B. Glincher. Modern Art and Modern Science: The Parallel Analysis of Vision. New York: Praeger, 1984.

Thorough discussion of ways in which aspects of Modernist art were parallel to scientific discoveries in or new conceptions of color, space, time, etc. Esp. note ch. 5, "Space and Time," (107-41) with its discussion of how technological hardware like stereoscopes and early cinematic devices influenced artists, notably Marcel Duchamp, Frank Kupka (see entry for L. D. Henderson, "X-rays and the Quest"), Giacomo Balla, and the Futurists. Also of interest in the closing chapter is the speculation that art and science have recently lost their parallelism largely because "the prestige and the moral standing of science have greatly declined" (259). Science has been criticized for just such analytical/reductionist leanings as attracted Modernist artists.