I believe that the purpose of Physics is to define the properties of space (and by proxy, space-time). I believe that the purpose of Art is to define the properties of ideological space, and to reconcile that ideological space with expressions of physicality. Art draws together the chasm between Physics and Metaphysics, using imagery of physical space to define the reality of ideological space.

It is then no great leap in logic when I conclude that Physics and Art are completely and irrevocably intertwined.

Inspired by Pseudo_Intellectual's The Art of Picasso, I will start with Dali.

Salvador Dali had an obsession with quantum mechanics. The recent reality of the atomic bomb in those Cold War days thrust Quantum Mechanics to the forefront of the public eye. Dali was irrevocably influenced by the power of the atom, the very particulateness of this phenomenon to destroy, decay, and mutate.

Dali's attempt to depict the essence of quantum mechanics was a unique challenge, in that it defied the very nature of quantum mechanics itself. By definition, it is based on probabilities and uncertainties, and defies the idea of observation. Quantum particles do not exist in the same manner that Classical Newtonian physics expresses existence, and thus, he illustrates a departure from classical art to surrealism. Dali's obsession with the act and the idea of decay was evidenced in his use of the theme of log functions in his paintings-- most notably the curves of the rhinocerous horn.

Dali's obsession with particles and the act of splitting was embodied in his many paintings breaking up the objects into cubes, spheres, and rhinocerous horns, each displaying the divisibility of matter. He also had an interest in drawing together the ideas of surrealism, Freud, and Relativity.

Pablo Picasso was not specifically interested in Special Relativity, but no man lives in a vacuum. The new theory of relativity significantly figured into the intellectual climate during Picasso's time, most likely influencing him in at least a subconcious way.

When I see Picasso, I see multiple coordinate systems. He's expressing linear transformations of the human form frozen at the same point in time. In essence, illustrating non-Euclidean geometry and the idea of space-time. He plays with the notion of the fourth dimension-- in the manner of a 3-dimensional being observing all of the space in a 2-dimensional world omnisciently, he paints from the perspective of a 4-dimensional being and the ability to see everything in a 3-dimensional world at the same 'time'.

Physics and Art are intellectual exercises of mankind, and are the basis upon which we compartmentalize physical and ideological spaces.

Attempts to make mathematical sense of reality.

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