Physics and Astronomy Departmental Colloquium (Prof. Britt Lundgren)

Event Instances

• Friday, October 9, 2026 3:00 P.M.

Event Details

Speaker: Prof. Britt Lundgren (University of North Carolina, Asheville)

Date: Friday October 9, 2026, 3-4 p.m.

Place: Natural Sciences Building, Room 112 

Title: Connecting 19th Century Physics and the Birth of Abstract Art

Abstract: 
The pioneering Swedish abstract artist Hilma af Klint is known to have been influenced by scientific developments at the turn of the twentieth century. However, many of her paintings from 1914 to 1916 exhibit similarities to diagrams published much earlier in the English polymath Thomas Young’s 1807 A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts. Key elements and themes in af Klint’s paintings during this key period suggest Young’s Lectures may have been a major source for her work. This talk will explore this idea and other parallels between the lives and legacies of the visionary scientist and the abstract art pioneer, with additional insights about af Klint’s other connections to astronomy and the Swedish physicist Knut Angstrom.