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Philip F. Palmedo has had a diversified career as a physicist, art critic, and author. His writings on art have included articles in journals, catalog essays, and several books on modern sculpture. In his four monographs on individual sculptors, Mr. Palmedo has explored the relationship between artists’ lives and their work. He has used those individual histories to understand the creative process and the nature of sculpture as an art form. One reviewer wrote of his most recent book, The Experience of Modern Sculpture, that it enables “both novice and experienced viewers of three-dimensional art to enrich their experience and deepen the joys of their perceptions.” That describes well the objective of his writing. 

deepaffinities-ISBN-13 978-0-78921-378-5

Deep Affinities

Abbeville Press, 2020

        “A former physicist who now writes on art, Palmedo reveals how the two defining enterprises of humankind―art and science―are rooted in certain common instincts, which we might call aesthetic: an appreciation of symmetry, balance, and rhythm; the drive to simplify and abstract natural forms, and to represent them symbolically. Palmedo traces these instincts back to a very early time in human history―demonstrating, for example, the level of abstract thinking required to create the stone tools and cave paintings of the Paleolithic―and then forward, to the builders of the Gothic cathedrals, to Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton, to Einstein and Picasso. Illustrated with more than 130 creations of the genus Homo―from a flint hand ax chipped half a million years ago to the abstractions of Hilma af Klint and the James Webb Space Telescope― Palmedo’s text leaves us with a new appreciation of the instinct for beauty shared by artists and scientists alike.”

“Philip Palmedo effortlessly moves between the worlds of art and science showing that they have always been one. The crux of his wonderfully illustrated narrative is to bring into sharp relief their quest in common for patterns, beauty, simplicity, symmetry and, of course, aesthetics. This book is a must read.”

Arthur I. Miller, Emeritus Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, University College London, author of The Artist in the Machine: The World of AI-Powered Creativity 

 

Deep Affinities can be purchased from Abbeville Press as well as Amazon