This is a fascinating, huge scale of a work. Kandel devotes
chapters to several topics, including the art happening in Vienna around the
year 1900, all the way up to neuroscience and psychology of art until the
present day. Complete with images of all the works of art and diagrams of
several concepts, it clearly is a labor of love and research.
As someone interested in both science and art, I found this
to be a fascinating, stimulating read. I was not super familiar with the art
happening in Vienna at the turn of the century, so going on a deep dive into
that was enlightening. Kandel focuses in on three painters: Klimt, Kokoschka,
and Schiele and how they influenced and differed from each other in their
portrayal of the human psyche.
From there Kandel goes into the science behind it,
discussing what researchers have discovered about our response to art and how
this is highlighted in these paintings. He also goes into what was known about
human psychology at the time in Vienna, and how that affected art of the time.
The conclusion reminds us that art and science are two sides
of the same coin, two languages that discuss the same things. We need both to
work together in order to understand the world around us, a statement I highly
endorse as well!
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