Event 1: Hammer Museum

Salome Dancing Before Herod by Gustave Moreau

On Tuesday, April 23, I visited the Hammer Museum, located in Westwood. The museum housed many contemporary artists and works of art, such as Suzanne Lacy’s “Three Weeks in May,” while the Armand Hammer collection of the museum contained works of art dating from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, including works by Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Edouard Manet. As I made my way through the museum, most especially through the Armand Hammer collection, I began to notice and pay close attention to the connection between mathematics, science and art, which I had not done while visiting museums in the past. For example, while viewing Gustave Moreau’s painting, “Salomé Dancing Before Harod,” I recognized the use of perspective in order to create an illusion of depth in a detailed and ornate depiction of Salome, the daughter of Herod II and Herodias, dancing before Herod Antipas. Similarly, Camille Pissarro utilizes the technique in his “Boulevard Montmartre, Mardi Gras” in his depiction of the celebration of the Parisian Carnival, Mardi Gras. While browsing through the more contemporary exhibitions, I was able to witness the connection between technology/science and art in Alex Hubbard’s “Eat Your Friends,” a five-minute digital video depicting every stage in the creation of his final piece, which shows a connection between art and science and helps to prove CP Snow's claim of a new third culture that will bridge the gap between art and science. 

Eat Your Friends by Alex Hubbard

Boulevard Montmartre, Mardi Gras by Camille Pissarro

Overall, my experience at the Hammer Museum was a very enjoyable and informative one. I was able to see first hand and better understand how art, mathematics and science are connected, which will greatly aid me in applying these topics to a project proposal for the midterm project. I would highly encourage my fellow classmates to visit the Hammer Museum in order to see many of the concepts discussed during the course in person, most especially, the connection between mathematics, science, and art.