05 May 2022
17:00  - 18:30

Large Lecture Hall, Organic Chemistry, St. Johanns-Ring 19, 4056 Basel

Organizer:
Department of Chemistry (TW)

Chemistry in Art, Art in Chemistry, and the spiritual ground they share (Dreyfus Lecture)

Prof. Dr. Roald Hoffmann (Nobel Laureate, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA)

Chemistry is an essential tool for making art. We will begin by looking at the evolution of pigments, from the Ishtar Gate to Prussian blue and modern pigments. And at photography, a very chemical enabling tool for artists.

Then we will turn to art in chemistry. The pages of my articles, those of my colleagues, are filled with drawings of molecules. From a certain reality, the creators of these drawings try to abstract the essence. As in art, significant formal considerations – the relationship of the parts of a molecule to its whole; symmetry and asymmetry – are essential.

On to the spiritual ground, I will discuss what attracts artists to alchemy, and how alchemical goals resonate in modern chemistry. And then take a wild leap to modern times, by posing a question that at first sight seems absurd: Is there an analogue in science to abstract art? We’ll explore chemical analogues to abstraction, for instance concentrating on one component of the artistic whole, and also look at the way modern chemistry gives the aleatory its due. I will work against the caricature of abstract art and science as ... cold. In chemistry and art both, we create and discover meaning.

Camille & Henry Dreyfus Lectureship
In memory of the Dreyfus brothers, the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Inc. has established the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Lectureship at the University of Basel. The annual Lectureship brings a leading chemist from the United States to the Basel campus to deliver a series of talks, and to meet with faculty and students in order to enhance the relationship between Swiss and U.S. science.


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