• Please use real names.

    Greetings to all who have registered to OPF and those guests taking a look around. Please use real names. Registrations with fictitious names will not be processed. REAL NAMES ONLY will be processed

    Firstname Lastname

    Register

    We are a courteous and supportive community. No need to hide behind an alia. If you have a genuine need for privacy/secrecy then let me know!
  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Cézanne's apples and wine bottles - and ours

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Roger Cohen, in his New York Times op-ed essay this morning (part of my breakfast-time intelligence briefing, served by the beautiful Carla along with three kinds of fruit and specially-prepared steel-cut oatmeal) quotes the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, speaking of "Cézanne’s abiding obsession with apples and wine bottles":

“And (like Van Gogh) he makes his ‘saints’ out of such things: and forces them — forces them — to be beautiful, to stand for the whole world and all joy and all glory, and he doesn’t know whether he has succeeded in making them do it for him. And sits in the garden like an old dog, the dog of his work that is calling him again and that beats him and lets him starve.”​

Many here have our apples and wine bottles, and Cézanne's obsession to "force them. . . to be beautiful". And rarely can we be certain that we have succeeded.

Some of my own apples and wine bottles are cosines, and parts of speech, and definitions of quantities, and cams, and latches, and instant centers, and the dashpots of Corliss valve gear. I care no less for women, and little kids, and animals, and automobiles, and buildings - but they are already beautiful.

Evidently I, like so many others here, am driven, Cézanne-like, to make beautiful what may not so often be recognized as such.

I indeed sit in my own garden (surrounded by uncountable LEDs), like Rilke's old dog - the dog of my work. But it neither beats me nor lets me starve.


You may wonder what Carla put in the oatmeal this morning.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Doug,

The essence is the passion to hunt for even a bigger and better hunt, leading to the perfect capture of something magnificent and the next grand hunt!

Asher
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Doug.

" Evidently I, like so many others here, am driven, Cézanne-like, to make beautiful what may not so often be recognized as such. "

I am told such ' drives ' are called a passion.

" But it neither beats me nor lets me starve. "

Experience has taught me that that is due to good planning.

Regards.

p.s Our friend did create good apples and wine bottles!
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Many here have our apples and wine bottles, and Cézanne's obsession to "force them. . . to be beautiful". And rarely can we be certain that we have succeeded.

Doug,

What Cézanne did is to apply skills, knowledge, intuition and imagination to project and idea into a physical form in a compelling way. He made expressions that we cannot discard. That, BTW, is art. That it is beautiful too is a bonus.

Cézanne's obsession was expressing his inner vision of things in a way that gradually, layer by layer, moves us to want to possess his work, not because it can do something but because we value experiencing his work with our own senses. The same effort put into imagining a steam locomotive or any other invention, also produces things of value that the society values and maintains, but that's primarily for its utility. Of course, the locomotive can be a work of art too, but that is secondary to its successful function for a tool of transport, so far hardly bettered.

I think we must allow Cézanne and his ilk the unique places they have earned as artists. What they did was not just for beauty's sake. I do not hold that beauty is an essential part of art and wouldn't demand that of all his work. Still, I'd love us to walk in his footsteps!

Asher
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Asher, art can and does exist in forms other than paintings/photography/design etc. Something that is generally perceived in a visual manner; concreate form.

I consider mathematics to be the most beautiful form of art, expression, design, and utility that exists in the universe.

The elegance and the simultaneous layers of complexity that underlie the peeling of what constitutes all that there is primarily through the artistic medium of mathematics.

The passion, devotion, brilliance, beauty, and expressive forms of this medium and its artists leaves me gasping for breadth.

While the pure art form is a vision, the artist painstakingly translates it into something way more
elegant than a canvas based medium could even dare attempt.

Its utility is there for all to see.

In my opinion this is the most sublime form of art, beauty and utility. Some call it Science. I call it the highest form of Art there is for Man to paint.

Something that does not need any medium. It does not even need the use of muscular movement.

It is all in the mind of the artist. Till he/she shows us his/her work.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Asher, art can and does exist in forms other than paintings/photography/design etc. Something that is generally perceived in a visual manner; concreate form.

Until the imagination is externalized in physical form it's not yet born as art. It's the physicality and the potential ability to send it anywhere in the planet after the artist has left the scene separates it from the idea still locked in the artist's head. Art, in a way, is a new being with life of its own.

I consider mathematics to be the most beautiful form of art, expression, design, and utility that exists in the universe.

Rather I think that the senses of man that appreciates art also experiences the art of mathematics as equally remarkable as a sensual and intellectual experience. Mathematics is a way of dealing with numbers and their patterns. It has it's own world in the mind of men but unless externalized in some sculpture, for example, it remains a different entity. It's no art as one would preserve in a museum but rather that one would store in a library.

The elegance and the simultaneous layers of complexity that underlie the peeling of what constitutes all that there is primarily through the artistic medium of mathematics.
The sentence seems incomplete and I don't get it. I think that either some punctuation or else an omitted extra word is needed for my comprehension.

Art is not something potential, rather it has in its presence or performance air in its nostrils and life, often after the artist no longer is around. Art as a concept in the mind, is just potential. It has to be actually materialized to become actual art.

Mathematics and art might share the same necessities such as framing of ideas, looking for relationships, consequence and significance, imagination, curiosity, drive, openness to new experience and more. However, one, mathematics, is a scientific discipline bound by logic. By contrast, the other, Art, is free from the constraints of logic or reality and only has to delight the senses in a way that makes us value the work so much that we want to preserve it for people to enjoy.

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Asher, art can and does exist in forms other than paintings/photography/design etc. Something that is generally perceived in a visual manner; concreate form.

Until the imagination is externalized in physical form it's not yet born as art. It's the physicality and the potential ability to send it anywhere in the planet after the artist has left the scene separates it from the idea still locked in the artist's head. Art, in a way, is a new being with life of its own.

I consider mathematics to be the most beautiful form of art, expression, design, and utility that exists in the universe.

Rather I think that the senses of man that appreciates art also experiences the art of mathematics as equally remarkable as a sensual and intellectual experience. Mathematics is a way of dealing with numbers and their patterns. It has it's own world in the mind of men but unless externalized in some sculpture, for example, it remains a different entity. It's no art as one would preserve in a museum but rather that one would store in a library.

The elegance and the simultaneous layers of complexity that underlie the peeling of what constitutes all that there is primarily through the artistic medium of mathematics.
The sentence seems incomplete and I don't get it. I think that either some punctuation or else an omitted extra word is needed for my comprehension.

Art is not something potential, rather it has in its presence or performance air in its nostrils and life, often after the artist no longer is around. Art as a concept in the mind, is just potential. It has to be actually materialized to become actual art.

Mathematics and art might share the same necessities such as framing of ideas, looking for relationships, consequence and significance, imagination, curiosity, drive, openness to new experience and more. However, one, mathematics, is a scientific discipline bound by logic. By contrast, the other, Art, is free from the constraints of logic or reality and only has to delight the senses in a way that makes us value the work so much that we want to preserve it for people to enjoy.

Asher
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Oh well then. I shall collect my sticks, go to Sikanderia ( Alexandria ) and recreate the measurement of earth's circumference.

Art affects us, or rather some of our emotions and senses. Different forms of art. Affecting and arousing different sensory receptors and emotions respectively; in varying ways and varying populations.

I am more affected by the beauty that is preserved in a library than that which is rightfully
and deservedly displayed in a gallery or museum.

Whatever tickles ones fancy! Back to my 0s and 1s interspersed with a reading from my copy of the Rubbayat.

Regards.
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
This morning before breakfast I shall bask in the beauty of Euler's identity:

Euler_01.gif


said to be the most beautiful equation in mathematics.

Interestingly enough, it is believed to have been known prior to the time of Euler, and although it is a special case of Euler's formula, nowhere does it seem that Euler himself actually enunciated it (doubtless assuming it to be obvious).

Some feel it would be better with a little more white space on the far right side.

Best regards,

Doug
 
This morning before breakfast I shall bask in the beauty of Euler's identity:

Euler_01.gif


said to be the most beautiful equation in mathematics.

Interestingly enough, it is believed to have been known prior to the time of Euler, and although it is a special case of Euler's formula, nowhere does it seem that Euler himself actually enunciated it (doubtless assuming it to be obvious).

Some feel it would be better with a little more white space on the far right side.

Surrounding oneself with beauty, basking in it even, sounds like a good start! Not sure about the added White Space though.

The formula is derived here.

As a photographer I prefer e = m * c^2, because it involves the speed of light. Where would photographers be without light ..., out of that game no doubt?

Cheers,
Bart
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Bart,

Surrounding oneself with beauty, basking in it even, sounds like a good start! Not sure about the added White Space though.

Yes, and I was also aware of how regularly we are reminded here of the potency of black-and-white works, which this (as I presented it) is!

The formula is derived here.
Thanks you for that excellent reference. Especially nice is the reference to Cotes' work in 1714.

Best regards,

Doug
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
This morning before breakfast I shall bask in the beauty of Euler's identity:

Euler_01.gif


said to be the most beautiful equation in mathematics.

Interestingly enough, it is believed to have been known prior to the time of Euler, and although it is a special case of Euler's formula, nowhere does it seem that Euler himself actually enunciated it (doubtless assuming it to be obvious).

Some feel it would be better with a little more white space on the far right side.

Best regards,

Doug

Indeed and

i know y

p.s for those who appreciate simplicity, logic and elegance..

This formula relates and uses the five most important numbers in mathematics and the three most important operatives. That's it. Nothing more.
To paraphrase Mr. Gauss, it is obvious!!

As elegant as elegance can be.
 

Mark Hampton

New member
Indeed and

i know y

p.s for those who appreciate simplicity, logic and elegance..

This formula relates and uses the five most important numbers in mathematics and the three most important operatives. That's it. Nothing more.
To paraphrase Mr. Gauss, it is obvious!!

As elegant as elegance can be.

Fahim,

And to me it says nothing, it looks like a bunch of strange and not so strange symbols and doesn't contain beauty.

Funny that.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
This morning before breakfast I shall bask in the beauty of Euler's identity...said to be the most beautiful equation in mathematics.



Some feel it would be better with a little more white space on the far right side:






Euler_01.gif






Indeed; and all around too. :)


Asher
 
Top