Skip to main content
Log in

Interdisciplinary Approach to Combine Science and Art: Understanding of the Paintings of René Magritte from the Viewpoint of Quantum Mechanics

  • Published:
Foundations of Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In the twentieth century, science and art had a grand paradigmatic shift each other. This study aims at comparing the epistemologies of surrealism and quantum mechanics that emerged in the 1930s and interpreting the paintings from a physical viewpoint, with a focus on the Copenhagen interpretation. In terms of epistemologies, the arbitrary relationship between an object and an image advocated by Magritte may correspond to the indeterminacy between physical entities and measurement. This study analysed the paintings of Magritte from the point of view of the features of the Copenhagen interpretation categories of wave–particle duality, indeterminacy, probabilistic interpretation and quantum hypothesis. Based on such discussions, this study gives some implications for enhancing creativity through an interdisciplinary approach.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Allday, J. (2009). Quantum reality: Theory and philosophy. New York: CRC Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Auletta, G. (2001). Foundations interpretation of quantum mechanics. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Babette, B., & Saslow, J. M. (2013). A companion to Renaissance to Baroque art. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohr, N. (1958). Atomic physics and human knowledge. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Camilleri, K. (2009). A history of entanglement: Decoherence and the interpretation problem. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 40(4), 290–302.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chipp, H. B. (1996). Theories of modern art: A source book by artists and critics. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Choi, J.-M. (2004). (The) virtuality of Rene Magritte’s depaysement. Seoul, Korea: Hongik University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cramer, J. G. (2016). The quantum handshake: Entanglement, nonlocality and transactions. Dordrecht: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Criminisi, A., Kemp, M., & Kang, S. B. (2004). Reflections of reality in Jan van Eyck and Robert Campin. Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, 37(3), 109–121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D’Alessandro, S., Draguet, M., & Goormans, C. (2013). Magritte: the mystery of the ordinary, 1926–1938. New York: The Museum of Modern Art.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson, K. (2002). Tycho and Kepler: The unlikely partnership that forever changed our understanding of the heavens. New York: Walker & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gablik, S. (1985). Magritte. London: Thames & Hudson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gohr, S. (2009). Magritte: Attempting the impossible. New York: Distributed Art Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gombrich, E. H. (2006). The story of art. New York: Phaidon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths, D. J. (2013). Revolutions in twentieth-century physics. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guilemin, R. (2010). Similarities and contrasts in the creative processes of the science and the arts. Leonardo, 43(1), 59–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann, N. (2014). Aesthetics. New York: De Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heisenberg, W. (1927). Über den anschaulichen inhalt der quantentheoretischen kinematik und mechanik. Zeitschrift für Physik, 43(3–4), 172–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heisenberg, W. (1949). The physical principles of the quantum theory (C. Eckart & F. C. Hoyt, Trans.). Mineola, NY: Dover Publications Inc.

  • Heisenberg, W. (1955). The development of the interpretation of quantum theory. In W. Pauli, L. Rosenfeld, & V. Weisskopf (Eds.), Niels Bohr and the development of physics. New York: McGraw Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Høffding, H. (1905). The problems of philosophy. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Høffding, H. (1955). A history of modern philosophy: A sketch of the history of philosophy from the close of the Renaissance to our own day (B. E. Meyer, Trans.). New York: Dover Publications.

  • Houston, K. (2012). Introduction to art criticism: Histories, strategies, voices. New York: Pearson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, R. (2008). Magritte (N. Park, Trans.). Seoul: Maronie Books.

  • James, W. (1950). The principles of psychology. New York: Dover Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jammer, M. (1989). The conceptual development of quantum mechanics. Los Angeles, CA: Tomash Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jho, H. (2014). Implications of science education as interdisciplinary education through the cases of scientists and artists in the modern era: Focus on the relationship between science and the arts. Journal of the Korean Association for Science Education, 34(8), 755–765.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kang, O.-M. (2007). (A) study on depaysement techniques of Rene Magritte’s work. Seoul: Hongik University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kemp, M. (1990). The science of art: Optical themes in western art from Brunelleschi to Seurat. London: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Longair, M. (2006). Revolutions in music and physics, 1900–30. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 31(3), 275–288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lopes, D. (1996). Understanding pictures. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lützen, J. (2007). The geometry of an art: The history of the mathematical theory of perspective from Alberti to Monge. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey, L. (2003). The treatise on perspective: Published and unpublished. Washington, D.C.: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAllister, J. W. (1996). Beauty & revolution in science. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, A. I. (1995). Aesthetics, representation and creativity in art and science. Leonardo, 28(3), 185–192.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, A. I. (1996). Insights of genius: Imagery and creativity in science and art. New York: Copernicus.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Murdoch, D. (1990). Niels Bohr’s philosophy of physics. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Park, J.-J. (2011). Magritte and simulacre. Seoul: Giparang Pub.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pauli, W. (Ed.). (1994). Writings on physics and philosophy. Berlin: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plotnitsky, A. (2006). Reading Bohr: Physics and philosophy. Dordrecht: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plotnitsky, A. (2016). The principles of quantum theory, from Planck’s quanta to the Higgs boson: The nature of quantum reality and the spirit of Copenhagen. Switzerland: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rooney, K., & Plattner, E. (Eds.). (2016). René Magritte: Selected writings. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Root-Bernstein, R. S. (1999). Sparks of genius: The thirteen thinking tools of the world’s most creative people. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmitt, C. B. (1981). Studies in Renaissance philosophy and science. London: Variorum Reprints.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schrödinger, E. (1926a). Quantisierung als Eigenwertproblem. Annalen der Physik, 384(6), 489–527.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schrödinger, E. (1926b). Quantisierung als Eigenwertproblem. Annalen der Physik, 384(4), 361–376.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schrödinger, E. (1926c). Quantisierung als Eigenwertproblem. Annalen der Physik, 386(18), 109–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schrödinger, E. (1926d). Über das Verhältnis der Heisenberg-Born-Jordanschen Quantenmechanik zu der meinem. Annalen der Physik, 384(8), 734–756.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shapin, S. (1994). A social history of truth: Civility and science in the seventeenth-century England. London: The University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Shirley, J. W., & Hoeniger, D. (1985). Science and the arts in the Renaissance. Washington, DC: Folger Shakesphere Library.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sim, M.-S. (2004). The educational implication of Kierkegaard’s existential single individual. The Korea Educational Review, 10(2), 5–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snow, C. P. (1998). Two cultures. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stonlitz, J. (1960). Aesthetics and philosophy of art criticism: A critical introduction. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

    Google Scholar 

  • van der Veen, J. (2012). Draw your physics homework? Art as a path to understanding in physics teaching. American Educational Research Journal, 49(2), 356–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vitz, P. C., & Glimcher, A. B. (1984). Modern art and modern science: The parallel analysis of vision. New York: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wear, D., & Zarconi, J. (2011). The treachery of images: How René Magritte informs medical education. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 26(4), 437–439.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weisberg, R. W. (2006). Creativity: Understanding innovation in problem solving, science, invention, and the arts. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wittgenstein, L. (1978). Philosophical investigations (G. E. M. Anscombe, Trans.). London: Basil Blackwell & Mott.

  • Zucker, M. (2013). Iconography in Renaissance and Baroque art. In B. Bohn & J. M. Saslow (Eds.), A companion to Renaissance and Baroque art (pp. 359–380). Oxford: Wiley.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean Government (MSIT) (No. NRF-2017R1C1B1007561).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hunkoog Jho.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Jho, H. Interdisciplinary Approach to Combine Science and Art: Understanding of the Paintings of René Magritte from the Viewpoint of Quantum Mechanics. Found Sci 24, 527–540 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-019-09600-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-019-09600-z

Keywords

Navigation