London Knowledge Lab 23-29 Emerald Street London WC1N 3QS

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Curious perspective

The Mathematics of Anamorphosis in Art

Man on Stairs, by Istvn Orosz, 1991 Anamorphic pictures are usually described as distorted images which only get

their meaning if looked at in the correct way. Now, mathematicians from the

London Knowledge Lab are teaming up with artists, graphic designers and

sculptors to explore the technicalities in a seminar. This is in conjunction with

a Study Day at the National Gallery on how to view these curious images

and find out how to create their own.

John Sharp, visiting fellow at the London Knowledge Lab and organiser of the

seminar and Study Day, explained, Over the past 500 years, anamorphosis

has come in and out of fashion. It also moved from serious art to aristocrat's

toys, to recreational mathematics and back again. Its simple geometrical

nature has been neglected by art historians, and misunderstandings have

arisen as to how view anamorphic paintings.

There are two main sorts of anamorphosis used in art that which requires

the viewer to stand in a particular position to see the true image and another

sort for the viewer would need a special mirror to be able to make the image

meaningful.

London Knowledge Lab 23-29 Emerald Street London WC1N 3QS

United Kingdom

The most famous example is the skull in Holbeins 1533 work, The

Ambassadors indeed, it took curators at the National Gallery some years to

work out what the splodge was at the front of the picture. Since then,

anamorphosis has been used by many artists and as a plaything of

recreational mathematics before it enjoyed a resurgence in art in the last half

century.

Artwork by Andrew Crompton, at the Museum of Science and Industry Manchester

The seminars aim to help visitors to see what the artists intended. But

studying the resolved images can also yield information about the history of

art and raise questions about how we look and see images generally and the

series hopes to explain both these issues from both art and mathematical

perspectives.

For more information, see www.lkl.ac.uk/events/maths-art/

The seminars are organised by John Sharp (visiting fellow at LKL) and Phillip Kent

(researcher in mathematics education at LKL). There is a free technical seminar at the

London Knowledge Lab on Friday 12 December, 2.30 - 5pm and a Study Day for the general

public (fee payable) at the National Gallery on Saturday 13 December 10.30 - 4pm.

John Sharp, email sliceforms@yahoo.co.uk telephone 01923 675093

Phillip Kent: email p.kent@ioe.ac.uk telephone 020 7763 2156