[HN Gopher] Geometric line-art of Waclaw Szpakowski (2017)
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       Geometric line-art of Waclaw Szpakowski (2017)
        
       Author : bookofjoe
       Score  : 341 points
       Date   : 2024-11-29 22:54 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theparisreview.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theparisreview.org)
        
       | rdtsc wrote:
       | These reminded me of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-
       | filling_curve
        
         | alkyon wrote:
         | Math meets art, this is exactly what I thought too.
         | 
         | Was always fascinated by Hilbert curves.
        
       | yu3zhou4 wrote:
       | I enjoyed the article. Never heard of him, despite being Polish.
       | Somewhat reminds me art of Roman Opalka
        
       | laowantong wrote:
       | A goldmine of Logo exercises, where the goal would be to write
       | the shortest program for a given drawing. All of them could be
       | classified by Kolmogorov complexity.
        
         | sorokod wrote:
         | Or approximate a drawing with transformations of an Iterated
         | Function System.
        
       | emsign wrote:
       | At first glance they remind me of PCB antennas. I wonder what
       | their RF characteristics would be if you were to just try them
       | out for fun.
        
         | nakedneuron wrote:
         | what if you lasercut it? would it fall apart in two pieces? :)
        
           | btbuildem wrote:
           | I definitely want to make reproductions, but nothing as crude
           | as printing them. I think I found my first project for the
           | toy 3018 cnc I put together!
        
       | seanhunter wrote:
       | If you like this sort of thing, there is a whole movement called
       | "Op Art" you should check out[1]. People like Bridget Riley in
       | particular. I saw the big Riley exhibition at the Tate in 2003
       | and it was fantastic. They had this enormous one-off piece that
       | had been specifically created for this exhibition on the first
       | wall you encountered as you went in. It was basically a massive
       | very bright white wall with a quite spacious grid of 3/4 circles
       | in black. The gap in each circle was rotated as you looked across
       | and up and down the wall. It was such a perculiar optical effect
       | it made your brain hallucinate colours and movement in this
       | purely static, black and white piece.
       | 
       | I knew Bridget Riley's work a bit before going into the
       | exhibition because she was one of the visual artists you learn
       | about when you study 20C music, and so I had seen a few of these
       | op art pieces, but I never expected an illusion to work so well
       | on such a huge scale.
       | 
       | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op_art
        
         | benrutter wrote:
         | Bridget Riley is an absolute master! I saw that exibit too and
         | it actually got me into making generative art (Riley isn't
         | generative art, but there's some obvious similarities).
         | 
         | I always found it fun that she really wasn't happy with how
         | that 3d piece worked out, so went back to flat canvas for the
         | rest of her career. I'm with you though, I thought it was
         | amazing.
         | 
         | Here's a great documentary on Riley for anyone with BBC access:
         | https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0011psx/bridget-riley...
        
         | cproctor wrote:
         | A fantastic show is up now at Buffalo's AKG
         | (https://buffaloakg.org/art/exhibitions/electric-op), including
         | work by Bridget Riley. She had a solo exhibition at AKG in
         | 1990.
        
         | Fluorescence wrote:
         | I saw the major retrospective at the Heywood. Spending a few
         | hours with all the 60s illusion paintings really does do a
         | number on you...
         | 
         | The works that most pleased me most were the later colourful
         | wall paintings like Rajastan (2012). Painting directly on the
         | gallery walls makes for an interesting copyright / art-as-
         | property type question. I guess her team has to repaint them
         | wherever they are shown and must oversee their destruction too.
         | Feels like there could be a Star Trek transporter glitch type
         | issue and whoops, we now have two Rajastan (2012)'s.
        
       | gigatexal wrote:
       | Really cool that something like this is at the top of HN
        
       | ziolko wrote:
       | It would be so much fun to make replicas of his art on the "Etch
       | A Sketch" [1].
       | 
       | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etch_A_Sketch
        
         | ndsipa_pomu wrote:
         | I wonder how his art would have been affected if he'd had
         | access to an Etch-A-Sketch?
        
         | MrMcCall wrote:
         | I wonder, did anyone ever make one of those with an "erase"
         | button?
        
       | smetj wrote:
       | Just wow. You have to take into account the year these were made
       | and its zeitgeist... It took a different mind to come up with
       | those back then ... nice ... well done ... thats the importance
       | of artists .... they are the ice breakers .. the rest just
       | follows ...
        
         | MrMcCall wrote:
         | Yes, as per usual the momentum of the majority remains rooted
         | in the low desires of the self.
        
       | warrenmiller wrote:
       | if you like this check out generative plotter art
       | https://old.reddit.com/r/PlotterArt/
        
       | Agraillo wrote:
       | Thanks to this post and a comment referring Iterated Function
       | System, two polish people are interestingly connected in the
       | field of the subject: Waclaw Sierpinski (Sierpinski triangle) [1]
       | and "Waclaw Szpakowski", they could even met at the time.
       | 
       | Another interesting thing about such connections is trying to
       | find a mention of them both in the same media (web page, research
       | paper, etc) so thanks to this a very promising book is found
       | "Art, algorithm and ambiguity. Aesthetic ambiguity with regard to
       | metacognition based on visual semiotics, visual rhetoric and
       | Gestalt Psychology" by Axel Rohlfs [2]. This method sometimes
       | works in other fields, if a researcher is aware of a couple
       | obscure facts, names or entities in a field, he or she is usually
       | very good at the field or at least dedicated enough time to it
       | 
       | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wac%C5%82aw_Sierpi%C5%84ski
       | 
       | [2] https://archiv.ub.uni-
       | heidelberg.de/artdok/8576/1/Rohlfs_Art...
        
       | taylorius wrote:
       | If it were me, I'd be putting a piece of graph paper underneath,
       | with a light behind it, and using it to trace the grids.
        
         | mkl wrote:
         | They're all on tracing paper, so he almost certainly did do
         | something like that.
        
       | roland35 wrote:
       | Makes me want to break out my pen plotter!
        
       | martyvis wrote:
       | It reminds of the art of M.C.Escher in the sense that it is
       | driven by a mathematical mindset, yet goes beyond mindless
       | repetition. This artist and M.C. Escher would have loved having
       | access to computer drawing program I think.
        
       | Witosso wrote:
       | Such articles on the top is why I love HN
        
       | openrisk wrote:
       | In our non-digital past talented creators would be obscure
       | because discovery and distribution was broken. In our digital
       | future talented creators will be obscure because discovery and
       | distribution will be broken.
       | 
       | Rants aside, thats quite a gem to surface here.
       | 
       | Wondering whether for single line drawings there is any analog of
       | aperiodic tillings.
        
         | gilleain wrote:
         | There is Prof. Felix Flicker's research in 'Hamiltonian Cycles
         | on Ammann Beenker Tilings' which is relevant I think.
         | 
         | https://www.felixflicker.com/research
        
       | LargoLasskhyfv wrote:
       | Why did the structured wall tilings from the interieur of the
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ennis_House by Frank Lloyd Wright
       | come to my mind?
       | 
       | https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Ennis+House&t=ffab&iar=images&iax=...
        
       | bookofjoe wrote:
       | >Waclaw Szpakowski (1883-1973). Linie rytmiczne (2016)
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/xqXNIzJWEzc?si=_rDa33xBhLeZtZa8
        
       | coldcode wrote:
       | I love this type of art. I make digital geometric art, currently
       | complex tilings, at https://andrewwulf.com (not selling any, just
       | showing it). Geometry and math can be very appealing to people
       | although it's not that popular commercially today outside of
       | NFTs. Repetition and variation can be powerful tools in art.
       | Waclaw deserves more recognition.
        
         | jevogel wrote:
         | Beautiful work. What's your technique for making these?
        
           | diego_moita wrote:
           | He wrote a blog explaining it: https://thecodist.com/my-art-
           | and-color-after-tiling/
        
         | Fluorescence wrote:
         | I enjoyed those, thanks! I like the circular grid eddy type
         | ones the most. I wanted to highlight some favourites but they
         | have a curious phenomenon where, after studying one for a
         | while, looking at a new one is so refreshing that it always
         | ranks higher so I just get stuck in a circle myself!
         | 
         | Reminds me of the graphic design at "May Contain Hackers 2022"
         | that I really liked: https://mch2022.org/#/ which included a
         | tool to generate similar designs https://mch2022.org/design/
         | 
         | Also reminds me of Bernard Cohen works that I loved in Tate
         | Modern. For me, he achieves something next level which is to go
         | beyond just pressing my "pleasing geometric pattern" buttons
         | but also the type of order/disorder that feels like a human
         | intelligence at work too.
         | 
         | I can't find a page including the ones I have in mind but:
         | 
         | https://www.flowersgallery.com/exhibitions/387-bernard-cohen...
         | 
         | https://www.artnet.com/artists/bernard-cohen/
         | 
         | Sod it, this is probably more comprehensive:
         | 
         | https://duckduckgo.com/?q=bernard+cohen+works&iax=images&ia=...
        
         | ks2048 wrote:
         | Great work! One of my favorites people should check out is
         | https://x.com/beesandbombs
        
         | indigoabstract wrote:
         | Wow, some of them look very artistic, I think they would look
         | quite at home on shadertoy too.
        
         | swayvil wrote:
         | Me too
         | 
         | http://fleen.org
        
         | ValentinA23 wrote:
         | beautiful art, thanks for sharing. I thought you would enjoy
         | this too (animations)
         | 
         | bleuje.com
        
         | omarrr wrote:
         | I feel compelled to add my own geometric art for the shake of
         | completion since it seems like a hobby from a few of us HNers:
         | 
         | https://omarrr.com/isolation-pixel-series
         | 
         | (Not selling either)
        
       | proee wrote:
       | Perfect art for a classic Etch A Sketch.
        
       | sigil wrote:
       | These are neat. I'm reminded of Claude Mellan's face of Christ
       | from 1649. This also uses a single continuous line, but he was
       | carving the line by hand into steel!
       | 
       | https://www.gallery.ca/magazine/your-collection/a-familiar-f...
        
       | fitsumbelay wrote:
       | thanks to OP for this
        
       | swayvil wrote:
       | I'm into this stuff too
       | 
       | https://www.fleen.org/i40.png
        
       | swayvil wrote:
       | I'd like to get his whole collection in a coffee table book.
       | Anybody?
        
       | medhir wrote:
       | I was in NYC around the time this exhibit was put together and
       | was told by a friend to go, referencing this article.
       | 
       | I don't think I've ever connected so strongly with a gallery
       | exhibit as I did for Waclaw's artwork. Something about how
       | intricate the works with just a single line. It was such a
       | serendipitous moment that I won't soon forget.
        
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