Visual, Poetical -- Mathematical Impressions

Art / Visual poetry      by Anatolii T Fomenko 

Statistical fantasy . .. imagining our random world . . .

     The art by Fomenko shown above conveys multiple meanings and thus is a good fit with both mathematics and poetry.  It invites contemplation -- give it some of your time! 

     I was introduced to Fomenko's art by an article by Maria Popova in Brain Pickings -- the article drew material (including the photo above) from Mathematical Impressions, a book featuring Fomenko's work and published by the American Mathematical Society in 1990.

     The book-cover-flap offers this information:
     Anatolii Fomenko is a noted Soviet mathematician with a talent for expressing abstract mathematical  concepts through artwork.  Some of his works echo those of M. C. Escher in their meticulous rendering of shapes and patterns, while other pieces seem to be more visceral expressions of mathematical ideas.  Stimulating to the imagination and to the eye, his rich and evocative work can be interpreted in various ways--mathematical, aesthetic, or emotional.
     In the Introduction is this quote from Fomenko:
"I think of my drawings as if they were photographs of a strange but real world, and the nature of this world, one of infinite objects and processes, is not well known. Clearly there is a connection between the mathematical world and the real world . . .  .  This is the relationship I see between my drawings and mathematics."