The Queen's University of Belfast

Date:
1961-1962
Reference:
PP/CRI/E/1/10/1
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Queen's University of Belfast. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    2/18
    Science and Art married ' at Queen's exhibition i^TIHE Visual Arts Group of Queen's A University liave offered, intentionally or otherwise, yet another contribution to the con troversy on the two cultures which has been intriguing the literary, and to some extent the non-literary, worlds ever since Dr. Leavis harangued Sir Charles Snow. Queen's would seem to come down on the side of Sir Charles with atn exhibition which does in effect underline the relationship, even the correlation, between art and science.. The exhibition, now in the Sir William Whitla Hall, consists of five pieces of sculpture by Barbara Hepworth and a number of examples of what may be called biological sculpture- models really that portray recent discoveries about such things as the transmission of genes and the composition of the blood. The really exciting thing about this juxtaposition to the ordinary visitor, who has no specialist knowledge either of sculpture or of science, must be the feeling of kinship between the two. No exact comparison Barbara Hepworth is engrossed an her sculpture with the elements of maiterial, with the basis of bone, muscle» rock or shell as much as any scientist. There may not be an exact comparison between the eon- volutions of her bronze shapes and the spiralling of atoms represented by vari-coloured globes but there, is no denying the sensation that they belong together in some not well apprehended dimension. Whether the sculpture will make «scientific ignoramuses any wiser is dubious, but the biological models and, perhaps even more, the photo graph of the myoglobin model of which there are only two copies in the world, even if not understood*] may very well help towards a tolerànt acceptance of contem porary sculpture. As to that sculpture,, let it be said at once that its impact cannot be predicted from ph o tag raps cr comment. This is sculpture to be walked round, to be fingered along its curves, to be admired from different angles, carefully watch ing the changing shades assumed by the smooth copper or green bronze. The shapes may seem bold at first, the treatment broad, but in fact they are supremely subtle. Living forms They all are abstractions from living forms; sometimes the original is easy to detect—a head or a shell; sometimes one would hesitate to say precisely the source of the inspiration, but it is evident always that there is a point of departure and this gives an emotional as well as intellectual validity to all the works. For once, too, there is ample space in which to view sculpture. The five pieces are so placed that they can be walked around at leisure, can each be viewed in isolation without any extraneous lines obtruding. This is always a matter of importance, but it is essential for the appréciation of this high! y, individualistic sculpture, each piece sounding its own note of exaltation, of accept ance, of appraisal or of with drawal. To-day week Dr. Archie Clow is to give a lecture at Queen's on Science and Art, which has a direct bearing on this exhibition, R.B.F. Bishop warns