In existographies, Rudolf Arnheim (1904-2007) (CR:12) was a German-born American psychologist and visual arts theorist noted, in art thermodynamics, for his 1971 publication on entropy, order, disorder, and art.
Overview
In 1971, Arnheim, in his booklet Entropy and Art: an Essay on Disorder and Order, attempted to reconcile the disturbing contradiction between the striving for order in nature and in man and the principle of entropy implicit in the second law of thermodynamics; between the tendency toward greater organization and the general trend of the material universe toward death and disorder. [1]
Education
Arnheim was a professor emeritus of psychology of art at Harvard University and spent a number of years on the psychology faculties at Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Michigan.
Quotes | By
The following are quotes by Arnheim:
“I attempted, in my Entropy and Art: an Essay on Disorder and Order (1971), to contribute to a world view that places human beings and the creations of their minds in the broader context of the physical universe and that sees them as subject to the laws of nature. There is no need to talk about ‘entropy’ when one interprets a Gothic madonna. But, fi one is searching for the place of art in the world of nature, then the reference to entropy is not only admissible but indispensable.”
— Rudolf Arnheim (1973), “Entropy and Art” [2]
References
1. (a) Arnheim, Rudolf. (1971). Entropy and Art: an Essay on Disorder and Order. Berkeley: University of California Press.
(b) Rudolf Arnheim - BoboLink Books.
2. Arnheim, Rudolf. (1973). “On Entropy and Art”, Leonardo, Vol. 6, No. 2. Spring. pgs. 188-89.
Further reading
● Land, Richard I. (1973). “Comments on Discussions of Entropy and Art in Leonardo in 1973.” Leonardo, Vol. 6, pgs. 331-33. Pergamon Press.
