http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071125114847.htm
Web address:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/
071125114847.htm
Researchers End Debate Over Fractal Analysis Of Authentication Of
Pollock's Art
Alexandra Ash and Michael Hallen study Jackson Pollock's drip painting
method. (Credit: Image courtesy of Case Western Reserve University)
ScienceDaily (Nov. 26, 2007) — When art experts and scientists gather on
November 28 to talk about Jackson Pollock's work, Case Western Reserve
University physicist Lawrence Krauss, the Ambrose Swasey Professor of
Physics and Astronomy, will be among the invited guests to the
symposium, sponsored by the International Foundation for Art Research in
New York City. The program will take place at the National Academy of
Design, and the gathering will examine science issues related to
authenticating Jackson Pollock's work.
The university's physicists recently "put the nail in the coffin" in the
debate about using fractal analysis in authenticating art as they
completed a second study related to fractal analysis and Jackson
Pollock's drip paintings.
The debate over the veracity of fractal authentication ignited after
fractal analysis was applied to a cache of paintings discovered by Alex
Matter that may be works of Pollock.
"No information about artistic authenticity can be gleaned from fractal
analysis," said Katherine Jones-Smith, lead author of the study. The
researchers, which include physicists Jones-Smith and her collaborators
Harsh Mathur and Lawrence Krauss, subjected seven paintings to fractal
authentication and found that the fractal characteristics of a painting
are completely uncorrelated to the artist. Their analysis includes three
famous paintings by Pollock, two paintings from the Matter cache and two
paintings made earlier this year by Case Western Reserve undergraduates
Alexandra Ash and Michael Hallen.
In the process of analyzing art, the researchers discovered some new
fractal mathematics and developed a process for separating the colored
layers of paint in art works.
Fractal analysis involves placing a grid over an image to search for
replications of geometric patterns. In this case, it also involved color
separation and an analysis of each layer of paint. The data is plotted
on a graph and a "box-counting curve" that resembles a staircase is
generated. This curve is inspected to see if it meets the fractal
authentication criteria.
The fractal authentication criteria were developed by University of
Oregon physicist Richard Taylor in a series of publications beginning
with a 1999 Nature article. Taylor announced
in 2006 that none of the six paintings that he analyzed from the Matter
cache were authentic, according to his criteria.
Later that year in an article published in Nature, Jones-Smith and
Mathur re****ted that scribbles made by Jones-Smith using Adobe Photoshop
also satisfied fractal authentication criteria, making them equal to
Pollocks in mathematical complexity. That a drawing resembling a child's
picture of stars passed Taylor's fractal test and rose to the status of
a Pollock cast serious doubt on the validity of fractal analysis as an
authentication tool.
The next step was to see if real Pollocks, and paintings that resemble
real Pollocks, would pass the fractal test, said Jones-Smith, and that
is the focus of the researchers' most recent re****t, has been posted on
the Physics Arxiv Web site for physics research and submitted to
Physical Review Letters for consideration. The authentic Pollock works
studied by the team included "Free Form" (1946), "The Wooden Horse:
Number 10A, 1948" (1948), and "Untitled" (ca 1950). The team found that
two of the three paintings fail to satisfy Taylor's criteria, even
though they are known to be authentic.
Then they found that two paintings, created earlier this year by Ash and
Hallen, do pass the fractal authentication test. Finally they analyzed
two paintings from the Matter cache and found that one passes the test
and one failed.
Jones-Smith said, "Known Pollock paintings, hanging in museums and worth
millions of dollars, don't pass Taylor's criteria, and then there are
the paintings by these students that do pass, even though they are
definitely not by Pollock."
As far as the paintings in the Matter cache go, the debate is far from
over. The 32 paintings, made public in 2005, were discovered among the
personal effects of the late Herbert Matter, a close friend of
Pollock's. According to Matter's records, the paintings were done by
Pollock.
Other scientists from Harvard University have disputed the paintings
origins by dating some of the materials as being patented in the U.S.
after Pollock's death in 1956.
"I think it is more appealing that Pollock's work cannot be reduced to a
set of numbers with a certain mean and certain standard deviation," said
Jones-Smith.
"The mystique that is part of the human experience is not so simply
classified and makes the tragedy of our existence more interesting,"
said Krauss.
What started as artistic research did yield new mathematical findings
about fractals. Mathur said they discovered that the statistics of
box-counting curves and related staircases provide a new way to
characterize geometry and distinguish fractals from Euclidean objects.
They explored how the steps in the staircases deviated from a smooth
box-counting curve to determine whether an object is fractal or Euclidean.
"Aside from resolving this art matter, these considerations have lead to
interesting scientific considerations," said Krauss. "It is nice that
consideration of the world of art has caused one to think about problems
that are relevant in a more general way in physical system."
Adapted from materials provided by Case Western Reserve University.
Need to cite this story in your essay, paper, or re****t? Use one of the
following formats:
APA
MLA
Case Western Reserve University (2007, November 26). Researchers End
Debate Over Fractal Analysis Of Authentication Of Pollock's Art.
ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 10, 2007, from
http://www.sciencedaily.com
/releases/2007/11/071125114847.htm
>
|
