Jackson Pollock, the science of art

At a glance, a painting by Jackson Pollock (1912 – 1956) can look deceptively accidental: just a quick flick of color on a canvas.

A quantitative analysis of Pollock's streams, drips, and coils, by Harvard mathematician L. Mahadevan and collaborators at Boston College, reveals, however, that the artist had to be slow—he had to be deliberate—to exploit fluid dynamics in the way that he did.

via physorg.com

And by the date of the paintings studied, it turns out that Pollock was ahead of physicists in his discovery of the properties of flowing liquids.

Filed under: Miscellany