Good art hunting:
MIT physics teacher tests art knowledge in hallway contest
--by Lisa Damtoft
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 Prof.
Walter Lewin's art contest board
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Stroll down the sixth-floor hallway of MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics
and Space Research in Building
37 and you'll see images of the Milky Way in molecular clouds, the
Folded-port InfraRed Echellette spectrometer and simulations of cold dark
matter caustics. Walk a little farther, and you'll see a Rembrandt, a Hockney,
a Picasso and many more reproductions by famous artists ranging from Giotto
to Judd. This unexpected burst of art in an enclave of science and technology
is the brainstorm of MIT physics professor and art lover Walter
Lewin. |
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For six years, Lewin has used the hallway bulletin board as a platform
to run a weekly art quiz to pique curiosity and invite involvement by colleagues
and students. Every Sunday he posts a printout of an artwork; participants
then use a little cardboard ballot box to submit their best guess as to
who the artist is. The following weekend, Lewin posts the answer and starts
the process all over again. At the end of each year, he awards art
books to the three participants who got the most answers right.
A few years ago, Elizabeth Kubicki, an assistant in the Microsystems
Technology Laboratories, was walking down the hall when the riotous gallery
of thumbtacked images caught her eye.
Intrigued, she started playing the quiz, becoming a detective of sorts in
the process. How to figure out the creator of an unknown piece? First, she
estimates the piece's time period, then turns to her art books and the web
to determine the most important artists from that era. "I examine the
art piece for specific elements significant to a particular artist -- brush
stroke, color, manner and favorite shapes," she said.
Her participation in the quiz has not only resulted in several sumptuous art
books as prizes from Lewin, but she also says she has learned profound lessons
about the creative process. "Art is a never-ending progress of inner expression," she
says. "It's an inevitable journey from superior cave
paintings at Lascaux from
32,000 years ago to the new dialectic of Mark Rothko's Orange and Yellow, 1956.
Lewin developed his passion for art as a child in his native Holland through
his parents' art collection and visits to the Gemeente Museum in The Hague.
While at MIT years later, he met renowned Dutch computer artist Peter
Struycken.
"My parents had several of his works in their collection," Lewin
said. "Peter and I became close friends. He made me 'see' art; before
I knew him, I only 'looked at' art. I learned how to appreciate and evaluate
the pioneering contributions in art."
Lewin collaborated with Struycken on the latter's art during the late 1970s;
the physicist's increasing expertise in art history led to an invitation from
the Beuymans Museum in Rotterdam to give the first Mondrian Lecture to a crowd
of 900 in Amsterdam in 1979. He has even started an art collection of
his own, now totaling about 125 pieces.
"Art is still pivotal in my life," says Lewin. "I can't even
imagine what my life would be without it. An appreciation for art and, above
all, knowledge of art enriches your life and broadens your horizons."
Kubicki agrees. "Art is mirroring our life, art is exercising our freedom
and art is implementing our intellect."
How many would you know?
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