In 2004, using the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists saw
the eddies of a distant cloud of dust and gas around a star, and it reminded
them of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” This motivated scientists from Mexico,
Spain, and England to study the luminance in Van Gogh’s paintings in detail.
They discovered that there is a distinct pattern of turbulent fluid structures
close to Kolmogorov’s equation hidden in many of Van Gogh’s paintings.
The researchers digitized the paintings, and measured how
brightness varies between any two pixels. From the curves measured for pixel
separations, they concluded that paintings from Van Gogh’s period of psychotic
agitation behave remarkably similar to fluid turbulence. His self-portrait with
a pipe, from a calmer period in Van Gogh’s life, showed no sign of this
correspondence. And neither did other artists’ work that seemed equally
turbulent at first glance, like Munch’s ‘The Scream.”
While it’s too easy to say Van Gogh’s turbulent genius
enabled him to depict turbulence, it’s also far too difficult to accurately
express the rousing beauty of the fact that in a period of intense suffering,
Van Gogh was somehow able to perceive and represent one of the most supremely
difficult concepts nature has ever brought before mankind, and to unite his
unique mind’s eye with the deepest mysteries of movement, fluid and light.
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