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Artwork is exquisite when it has been brought to a high level of perfection and completeness. The word "exquisite" derives from the Latin "exquirere" meaning "to search for" and "to seek out," and, indeed, the artists in this exhibition began by taking great care in the selection of a subject matter that harbors beauty. Many looked to natural world of plants and landscapes, and others made a careful selection from everyday objects near-at-hand. Some found inspiration in the hidden realms revealed by science, and a few created fantasy worlds where dreams take us. Each artist then manipulated the image to bring out its unique qualities of detailed patterns, vibrant colors, or haunting associations. A careful looking at this work rewards the viewer with the intense pleasure of seeing art that has the rare quality of being exquisite.
My background is in organizing exhibitions and writing books that explore the impact of the sciences and mathematics on the visual arts. In jurying this exhibition it was especially interesting for me to see work by artists who use microscopy and other methods to see invisible realms, and also those who discern patterns in the visible world, such as a flower, by abstracting the image using digital tools. This is the first time I have assembled an exhibition from a completely "virtual" group of works, and it was nice to be an Internet voyager to studios in North and South America, Europe and half-way around the world in Australia and Asia.
- Lynn Gamwell, 2005
Lynn Gamwell is Director of the Binghamton University Art Museum and Curator of the Gallery of Art and Science, the New York Academy of Sciences. Her books include Dreams 1900-2000: Science, Art, and the Unconscious Mind (Cornell University Press, 2000) for which she was awarded the Gradiva Prize ("Best Historical Writing") by the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis. In her most recent book, Exploring the Invisible: Art, Science, and the Spiritual (Princeton University Press, 2002), she traced the impact of science on modern art. This book was named an “Editor’s Choice” by both Scientific American and Bookforum, "An Outstanding Academic Title" by Choice, and a "Book of the Year" by George Steiner for The Times Literary Supplement. She is currently curating the exhibition From Neurology to Psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud's Drawings and Diagram (opening May 2006) and writing the book Mathematics and Modern Art (forthcoming Fall 2007).
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