An Unexpected Partnership: Mathematics and Art (August 2025)

This essay first appeared in the August 2025 issue of Choice (volume 62 | issue 12).

Posted on August 29, 2025 in Bibliographic Essays

Introduction:

Interest in the relationships between mathematics and art has grown dramatically within the past century. The aim of this bibliography is to present significant works by artists and mathematicians who have explored the connections between mathematics and art. People have been relating mathematics and art ever since they began creating, whether weaving a basket, putting a design on a cave wall, making an arrowhead, or constructing a building. Mathematics and art have grown side by side, influencing and inspiring each other, and every area of mathematics has been exploited by artists in some way.

The first section introduces important works that approach the connections between art and mathematics in a general way, highlighting various areas of mathematics and artistic styles. These works provide an excellent introduction for anyone wanting to see the relationships between art and mathematics. Two well-known areas in which artists use mathematics are perspective and symmetry. Sections of this bibliography are devoted to each. Shorter sections bring out more specialized topics: mathematics in architecture, the work of individual artists, the use of modern mathematics in art, and ethnomathematics (the mathematical work of Indigenous and traditional cultures).

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About the Author:

Catherine A. Gorini, PhD, is the Dean of Faculty and professor of mathematics and Maharishi International University in Fairfield, IA. Her research interests include applications of mathematics in art, mathematics education, and geometry. She is the executive editor of the International Journal of Mathematics and Consciousness.

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