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Art Forms in Nature: The Prints of Ernst Haeckel (Monographs) Review

What can I say. The illustrations are amazing, the subject matter is gorgeous, and the illustrator is from a generation of gentlemen (and occasionally, back then, gentlewomen) that made wonderfully detailed artworks as scientists, or as they used to call them, natural philosophers.

If you are curious, and tend toward the psychedelic, the complex, the ramified, and the 'Tiffany-twisted', you will be very happy looking at the pages of this text. If you are an artist of any kind, this book may inspire you. Breathe, nay, suck it in. You won't be disappointed.

However, if you think that 'art' is just a decorative discipline, or that art is something that should always be narrowly 'pretty', you may wish to look elsewhere. There's plenty of pretty here, but some of it is downright biologically-ugly, and by that, I mean gorgeous to me.

Sometimes ugly is pretty. Biology is refined, and crude. Sophisticated, and blunt. Space-age, and extinct. And so on... We will be searching, as natural philosophers, through all that biology has to tell us, long after any of us are dead, to find beauty and ugliness. Waste, rot, carnage. Sustainability, health, wealth, welfare, agreement. And enjoyment.

'nuff said.

Art Forms in Nature: The Prints of Ernst Haeckel (Monographs) Feature

ISBN13: 9783791319902
Condition: New
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Art Forms in Nature: The Prints of Ernst Haeckel (Monographs) Overview

The geometric shapes and natural forms, captured with exceptional precision in Ernst Haeckel's prints, still influence artists and designers to this day. This volume highlights the research and findings of this natural scientist. Powerful modern microscopes have confirmed the accuracy of Haeckel's prints, which even in their day, became world famous. Haeckel's portfolio, first published between 1899 and 1904 in separate installments, is described in the opening essays. The plates illustrate Haeckel's fundamental monistic notion of the "unity of all living things" and the wide variety of forms are executed with utmost delicacy. Incipient microscopic organisms are juxtaposed with highly developed plants and animals. The pages, ordered according to geometric and "constructive" aspects, document the oness of the world in its most diversified forms. This collection of plates was not only well-received by scientists, but by artists and architects as well. Rene Binet, a pioneer of glass and iron constructions, Emile Galle, a renowned Art Nouveau designer, and the photographer Karl Blossfeld all make explicit reference to Haeckel in their work.

Art Forms in Nature: The Prints of Ernst Haeckel (Monographs) Specifications

Every biology student knows Ernst Haeckel as the originator of the "Biogenetic Law": ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. Haeckel was a passionate student of the evolutionary shaping of biological forms, and Art Forms in Nature captures both his artistic sensibility and the scientific rigor he applied to all his studies. First published in 1904, Art Forms in Nature is a glorification of function and form, a demonstration of organic symmetry that has nothing--and everything--to do with nature as it actually exists. Each plate exhibits organisms carefully arranged and exquisitely detailed, "a symbiosis between decorative sketches and descriptive observations of nature," as Olaf Breidbach states in his fascinating introductory text. The radiolarians, medusae, rotifers, bryozoans, and even frogs and turtles lovingly recreated here are gorgeous and self-explanatory, rendered in delicate, filigreed lines, and colored gently with muted green, delicate pink, and sepia. Art students will appreciate the designs found in nature--scientists will love the evolutionary statement of form inherent in the beauty. --Therese Littleton

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Customer Reviews

A collection from a 19th century master. - PaxSix - Queensland, Australia
Ernst Haeckel's illustrations are the epitome of 19th century scientific drawing. The drawings are meticulously detailed and show of the symmetry and geometry of natural forms. The plates of large organisms such as reptiles have a quaint, old-fashioned look, often bordering on ugly - yet interesting! The bulk of my affections goes to the plates of radiolarians and other symmetrical microorganisms: here Haeckel is in his element, revealing the geometric beauty of organisms that we rarely see in life as they are too small or live underwater. They are inspiring for designing patterns and scuptural forms: get this book if you are interested in biology, art history or design!

The plates are well printed, reproducing colour and detail well, while the size is big enough to see the details clearly, while small enough to have a book that can be handled and browsed comfortably.

Stunning...would give million stars to it! - Gaika - The Netherlands
Just got this book today in mail and it is mindblowing. Before ordering i looked through the reviews and the video review which helped me a lot. And the book is just that - stunningly beautiful. I have been flipping through the pages but to really go through it will take a long time because the body of work is enormous, so many details in the drawings....aah and the compositions....wow.... To me looking through this book is like meditation!
whoever gives this book less than 5 stars does not know what they wanted out of the book in the first place.

a wonderful book - flora - BeiJing China
This is the first time I bought book on amazon.com. I feel very satisfied with the experience! I like the book very much and the shipping time is acceptable(for it's from USA to China)! Thanks very much!

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Tuesday, August 31, 2010