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Math Art: Truth, Beauty, and Equations
From geometry in motion to the possibilities of pi, this stunning volume reveals how art has been inspired by the beauty and poetry of mathematical principles.
The worlds of visual art and mathematics come together in this spectacular volume by award-winning writer Stephen Ornes. He explores the growing sensation of math art, presenting more than 80 pieces, including a crocheted, colorful representation of non-Euclidian geometry that looks like sea coral and a 65-ton, 28-foot-tall bronze sculpture covered in a space-filling curve. For each work, we get the artist’s story followed by accessible and thought-provoking explanations of the mathematical concept and equations behind the art.
From 3D-printed objects that give real form to abstract mathematical theories, to mystic fractals, to Andy Warhol as a solution to the Traveling Salesman Problem, these artworks embody some of strangest, most beautiful relationships among numbers and across dimensions.
The worlds of visual art and mathematics come together in this spectacular volume by award-winning writer Stephen Ornes. He explores the growing sensation of math art, presenting more than 80 pieces, including a crocheted, colorful representation of non-Euclidian geometry that looks like sea coral and a 65-ton, 28-foot-tall bronze sculpture covered in a space-filling curve. For each work, we get the artist’s story followed by accessible and thought-provoking explanations of the mathematical concept and equations behind the art.
From 3D-printed objects that give real form to abstract mathematical theories, to mystic fractals, to Andy Warhol as a solution to the Traveling Salesman Problem, these artworks embody some of strangest, most beautiful relationships among numbers and across dimensions.
208 pages, Hardcover
Published April 16, 2019
19 people are currently reading
488 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 27, 2025
I borrowed this book in the hope that it might have some really amazing pictures. But very few were worth looking at. Disappointing.
June 24, 2020
Math, beyond basic algebra and geometry, is not a friend to my brain. I married a mathematician. I try to understand him and what he does. As a visual learner, seeing math in art is useful, and I appreciated Ornes' exploration of math in contemporary art, and also how math itself is artistic. The writing is accessible and not textbook-y. This is somewhere between a coffee table book (size, quality, color pictures) and a general interest nonfiction book. One to keep in mind for math lovers; precocious middle schoolers would likely appreciate this.
March 12, 2021
An excellent introduction to many mathematical topics! It does a beautiful job of showing mathematical principles in artwork. The explanations are also concise and reasonable to relate details of the art/math.
I come from the mathematical perspective so I really appreciated the book. I don't know if it would be equally interesting to an artist interested in mathematics.
The colors are rich and beautiful. The selected artwork is also diverse and eye-catching. And I was DELIGHTED to see M. C. Escher works NOT featured in the book. Yes, many of the examples mention Escher as an influence, but none of the artists' examples were Escher. Granted, I love Escher, but his work has become so overly glorified as mathematical that I was hoping he would NOT be featured in the book... and he was not!
To mention a fascinating mathematical tidbit, I did learn some new math ideas I hadn't known before. In the section about tesselations, it relates how a single line can create that tesselation pattern. The repetition of that tesselation over the plane allows a one-dimensional line to be fully mapped to a plane. When this happens, the line takes on a fractional dimension as it now has more than the 1 dimension of a line but not the full 2 dimensions of a plane.
Finally, the text is great and interesting, but the book has good enough art to make for a great coffee table book. Place it on a table and let your houseguest appreciate the beauty of Math Art!
I come from the mathematical perspective so I really appreciated the book. I don't know if it would be equally interesting to an artist interested in mathematics.
The colors are rich and beautiful. The selected artwork is also diverse and eye-catching. And I was DELIGHTED to see M. C. Escher works NOT featured in the book. Yes, many of the examples mention Escher as an influence, but none of the artists' examples were Escher. Granted, I love Escher, but his work has become so overly glorified as mathematical that I was hoping he would NOT be featured in the book... and he was not!
To mention a fascinating mathematical tidbit, I did learn some new math ideas I hadn't known before. In the section about tesselations, it relates how a single line can create that tesselation pattern. The repetition of that tesselation over the plane allows a one-dimensional line to be fully mapped to a plane. When this happens, the line takes on a fractional dimension as it now has more than the 1 dimension of a line but not the full 2 dimensions of a plane.
Finally, the text is great and interesting, but the book has good enough art to make for a great coffee table book. Place it on a table and let your houseguest appreciate the beauty of Math Art!
March 23, 2024
I enjoy math and I enjoy art so this book was immediately compelling. Overall I highly enjoyed the layout. I think Ornes provides a sufficient level of mathematical detail to appreciate the art he features. I enjoyed the gradual building of mathematical ideas. Near the end I found it very gratifying when a previous idea was mentioned and I already knew the ideas. My only complaint is that there were a few instances where a piece is mentioned but there was no accompanying visual. I was a bit disappointed when this happened and wished there were a few more pages so that every piece mentioned had an accompanying visual representation.
July 29, 2020
I bought this book just for the pictures but I actually enjoyed reading it. I'm pretty educated in math so a lot of the concepts were familiar to me. But, when u read it all the way through some of the concepts build on each other. This books dives into spirituality which I absolutely love. This book really inspired me to make more art.
August 10, 2019
although, I admit, I skimmed :)
January 3, 2020
Quick read. Interesting subject. Recommended for readers with mathematical knowledge. Referencing back and forth throughout the book was a little annoying.
April 17, 2022
exellent interduction
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 10, 2025
Wonderfully, eye-opening book on how mathematicians and non-mathematicians around the world are using mathematical principles to create other-wordly art. Great
February 1, 2026
Beautiful
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January 5, 2021-i saw this one go by at the library and was intrigued by the pictures. i tried to read it but got lost after the first couple chapters. the pictures and the art are wonderful though. maybe if they'd used all these wonderful pictures when teaching me math in school, my brain wouldn't seize up every time i try to do math.
"view moving videos of some of the sculpture pictures in the book at johnedmark.com (the artist of those sculptures)"
"in a plant, the golden angle produces the optimal way to distribute leaves around a central stalk so they all get light. if a leaf grows on a stem directly under another leaf, it will be deprived of sunlight. so it needs to be offset at some angle. by arranging leaves with the golden angle, they're all positioned to receive light without suffocating the lower leaves. this arrangement is less a low of nature than a demonstration of how plants have evolved to optimize scarce resources in a crowded environment. this angle shows up everywhere if you know where to look for it. its the angle between the fleshy leaves of an agave plant. look at a pinecone from the top and you'll see that consecutive wings spread at this 137.5 degree angle."
"we have a general culture that passes on the idea that math is hard, and math is no fun, and math will be your punishment - instead of showing that it's creative and beautiful. many people associate math with grueling multiplication drills and memorized geometry proofs. students often aren't exposed to the aesthetic, elegant, and wondrous side of the subject until they study math in college. by then it's often too late. many would-be mathematicians have already chosen another field. george hart regularly visits schools and universities all over the world to give talks and to help groups assemble custom, large-scale geometric sculptures that stay behind long after he leaves. the projects combine team-building with a hands-on mathematics lesson. his youngest audiences aren't even old enough to know that they're not supposed to like math."
"view moving videos of some of the sculpture pictures in the book at johnedmark.com (the artist of those sculptures)"
"in a plant, the golden angle produces the optimal way to distribute leaves around a central stalk so they all get light. if a leaf grows on a stem directly under another leaf, it will be deprived of sunlight. so it needs to be offset at some angle. by arranging leaves with the golden angle, they're all positioned to receive light without suffocating the lower leaves. this arrangement is less a low of nature than a demonstration of how plants have evolved to optimize scarce resources in a crowded environment. this angle shows up everywhere if you know where to look for it. its the angle between the fleshy leaves of an agave plant. look at a pinecone from the top and you'll see that consecutive wings spread at this 137.5 degree angle."
"we have a general culture that passes on the idea that math is hard, and math is no fun, and math will be your punishment - instead of showing that it's creative and beautiful. many people associate math with grueling multiplication drills and memorized geometry proofs. students often aren't exposed to the aesthetic, elegant, and wondrous side of the subject until they study math in college. by then it's often too late. many would-be mathematicians have already chosen another field. george hart regularly visits schools and universities all over the world to give talks and to help groups assemble custom, large-scale geometric sculptures that stay behind long after he leaves. the projects combine team-building with a hands-on mathematics lesson. his youngest audiences aren't even old enough to know that they're not supposed to like math."
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July 21, 2023I’d have liked to see a bit deeper maths explained on concrete artpieces.
Nonetheless beautiful book.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews