List of mathematical artists


This is a list of artists who actively explored mathematics in their artworks. Art forms practised by these artists include painting, sculpture, architecture, textiles and origami.
Some artists such as Piero della Francesca and Luca Pacioli went so far as to write books on mathematics in art. Della Francesca wrote books on solid geometry and the emerging field of perspective, including De Prospectiva Pingendi , Trattato d’Abaco , and De corporibus regularibus , while Pacioli wrote De divina proportione , with illustrations by Leonardo da Vinci, at the end of the fifteenth century.
Merely making accepted use of some aspect of mathematics such as perspective does not qualify an artist for admission to this list.
The term "fine art" is used conventionally to cover the output of artists who produce a combination of paintings, drawings and sculptures.

List

ArtistDatesArtformContribution to mathematical art
Calatrava, Santiago1951–ArchitectureMathematically-based architecture
Da Vinci, Leonardo1452–1519Fine artMathematically-inspired proportion, including golden ratio
Della Francesca, Piero1420–1492Fine artMathematical principles of perspective in art; his books include De prospectiva pingendi, Trattato d’Abaco, and De corporibus regularibus
Demaine, Erik and Martin1981–Origami"Computational origami": mathematical curved surfaces in self-folding paper sculptures
Dietz, Ada1882–1950TextilesWeaving patterns based on the expansion of multivariate polynomials
Draves, Scott1968–Digital artVideo art, VJing
Dürer, Albrecht1471–1528Fine artMathematical theory of proportion
Ernest, John1922–1994Fine artUse of group theory, self-replicating shapes in art
Escher, M. C.1898–1972Fine artExploration of tessellations, hyperbolic geometry, assisted by the geometer H. S. M. Coxeter
Farmanfarmaian, Monir1924–Fine artGeometric constructions exploring the infinite, especially mirror mosaics
Ferguson, Helaman1940–Digital artAlgorist, Digital artist
Forakis, Peter1927–2009SculpturePioneer of geometric forms in sculpture
Grossman, Bathsheba1966–SculptureSculpture based on mathematical structures
Hart, George W.1955–SculptureSculptures of 3-dimensional tessellations
Hill, Anthony1930–Fine artGeometric abstraction in Constructivist art
Longhurst, Robert1949–SculptureSculptures of minimal surfaces, saddle surfaces, and other mathematical concepts
Man Ray1890–1976Fine artPhotographs and paintings of mathematical models in Dada and Surrealist art
Naderi Yeganeh, Hamid1990–Fine artExploration of tessellations
Pacioli, Luca1447–1517Fine artPolyhedra in Renaissance art; proportion, in his book De divina proportione
Perry, Charles O.1929–2011SculptureMathematically-inspired sculpture
Robbin, Tony1943–Fine artPainting, sculpture and computer visualizations of four-dimensional geometry
Sugimoto, Hiroshi1948–Photography,
sculpture
Photography and sculptures of mathematical models, inspired by the work of Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp
Taimina, Daina1954–TextilesCrochets of hyperbolic space
Uccello, Paolo1397–1475Fine artInnovative use of perspective grid, objects as mathematical solids
Verhoeff, Jacobus1927–SculptureEscher-inspired mathematical sculptures such as lattice configurations and fractal formations