Week 8 - Episode 45 - Spirals in Art

When thinking about spirals in art this is the first - and one of the biggest spirals that comes to mind.

Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty in Utah - now sadly submerged most of the time - is a beautiful contradiction. A spiral with a view that leads you back in not towards the wideness of the water, but yourself.

And this beautiful tension between contraction and expansion is used in a lot of art, although not always as explicitly as in Smithson’s work, where the spiral coincides with the work.

The most famous and familiar spirals in painting are probably found in Van Gogh’s starry night.

Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night, 1889, MoMA, New York

One of my personal favourite is a bit more abstract, but still very much a spiral: Matisse’s snail.

Henri Matisse - The Snail - 1953, Tate Modern

Today, go on a treasure hunt for spirals in art. Dive into Google Arts and Culture, or other online collections, and look for different ways artists use spirals in their work.

Share your finds on Twitter or Instagram, using the hashtag #kramerseye.

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Week 8 - Episode 44 - Symbolic Spirals

Spiral symbols are among the earliest rock carvings humans have made. But what do they mean?

Some people suggest they may have represented the sun, or a portal to the spirit world.

Others think that they had a more functional purpose, such as a simple calendar to keep track of the seasons.

The above spirals are found in the Newgrange monument in Ireland, built during the Neolithic period, around 3200 BC (before Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids). This is a kerbstone - there are even more spirals on the entrance stone.

Were they meant to ward off evil spirits? To call in friendly ones?

Were they there simply because people counsidered them beautiful?

We don’t know - and we may never find out.

spudmurphy [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]

But we can turn to a modern artist for a very insightful take on the meaning of the spiral.

Louise Bourgeois, a 20th century French-American artist has this to say”

“The spiral is an attempt at controlling the chaos.”

Bourgeois stressed the spiral’s two opposing directions: inward and outward.

The outward movement represented “giving, and giving up control, trust and positive energy….” While the winding in of the spiral embodied “a tightening, a retreating, a compacting to the point of disappearance.

I think that’s one of the most relatable and plausible interpretations I’ve seen so far.

Today, look for spirals as symbols.

Can you spot them used in logos, on products, prints? What do you think they mean?

Share your symbolic spirals using the hashtag #kramerseye on Twitter or Instagram. And if you’d like to see some of Louise Bourgeois spirals, which sadly I can’t show due to copyright restrictions, head over to MoMA’s complete collection of Bourgeois’ print and books, which you can find here.

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Week 8 - Episode 43 - Broccoli and Erroneous Epitaphs

I like to eat broccoli. Voluntarily.

But there’s one type of broccoli I love to look at even more than eat: Roman Broccoli.

Why?

Because of Spira Mirabilis.

This is the name Swiss mathematician Jakob Bernouilli (1654-1705) gave to the logarithmic spiral, or ‘similar growth spiral’ which we so often see in nature. As the size of the spiral increases, its shape is unaltered with each successive curve - creating a delightful repetition of form.

You can see observe this spiral in, for example, the nautilus, galaxies, cyclones - and Roman (or Romanesco) broccoli.

Now Bernoulli love this spiral so much he wanted it inscribed on his grave, together with the text:

“Eadem mutata resurgo” - I rise again changed, but the same

The perfect description for the logarithmic spiral.

Wolfgang Volk, Monuments for Mathematicians

Except…the accompanying illustration, as you can see above, is of an Archimedes spiral - not a logarithmic one.

A rather frustrating epitaph error which makes you think Bernoulli isn’t resting quite as comfortably as he otherwise might have been.

There are other gorgeous spirals in nature as well, such as the famous Fibonacci spiral which you can find e.g. in sunflowers and red cabbage.

Cross-section of red cabbage, © Else Kramer

It’s easy to get lost in the details of these amazing ready-made works of art.

Today, let’s celebrate the miracle of spirals by looking for them in nature.

Find them in flowers, shells, vegetables - and maybe even in the sky.

Capture them and share them using the hashtag #kramerseye on Twitter or Instagram.

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Week 8 - Episode 42 - Sumptuous Spirals

Why do humans love spirals?

Why do we draw, carve, paint and build them?

First of all, because they abound in nature.

Second: because we perceive them as deeply symbolic.

Silver-plated Corkscrew, © Else Kramer

And, who knows, because they open bottles of wine.

In all seriousness: spirals are everywhere.

It’s hard not to notice the magnificent double spiral staircase in the Vatican Museums (designed by Giuseppe Momo, sculpted by Antonio Maraini) - but we mostly miss all those other spirals in our lives.

This week that is what we’ll turn our attention to.

Today, start spotting spirals.

Capture them, and share them using the hashtag #kramerseye on Twitter or Instagram.  

Listen to today’s podcast