The exhibition confronts aesthetic innovation with scientific knowledge and, using notable examples, shows the link between art and natural sciences in early modernity. Revolutionary scientific discoveries such as Max Plank’s definition of the quantum (1900) or Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity (1905) meant a restructuring of physics and mathematics, new notions of space and time. These were taken up and reflected on by avantgarde movements such Cubism and Futurism. As with technical advances in electricity, radio and telegraphy, the development of modern metropolises, the extension of railways but also the mechanization of warfare bring in their wake a new way of experiencing the world. This entry into the modern age shatters and fragments the old world and initiates the depiction of many invisible elements and energies.


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photos © Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Vienna; András Bakucz Szombathely; University of Technology Vienna