Lynn Gamwell will discuss Spiritual Art in the Age of Science at The University of Texas at Dallas at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 12 in the Davidson Auditorium (SOM 1.118).

The event, which is free and open to the public, is part of a series of public forums organized by UT Dallas’ Center for Values in Medicine, Science and Technology. Each public forum lecture is followed by ample opportunity for audience discussion.

Gamwell’s book Exploring the Invisible was hailed by scholar George Steiner as “a major contribution.” Science magazine stated that the book demonstrates that science, culture and art “move and change together.” Her lecture will explore the creative influences art and science have on each other.

Gamwell explains, “During the rise of modern science, traditional philosophical and theological questions about supernatural realms have been reformulated in the secular, naturalistic language of the laboratory.”

The lecture “will give an illustrated tour of spiritual themes in early abstract art that emerged to express a scientific world view,” Gamwell says. “[I] will focus on Jugendstil design of the 1890s that expressed the dynamic view of the human mind put forth by evolutionary biology and psychology, and art and architecture of the 1920s that embodied Einstein’s cosmic religion.”

Gamwell is the curator of the Gallery of Art and Science at the New York Academy of Sciences, the director of the Binghamton University Art Museum and a faculty member of the School of Visual Arts, New York. She co-wrote Madness in America: Cultural and Medical Perceptions of Mental Illness Before 1914 and edited Dreams 1900-2000: Science, Art and the Unconscious Mind.

More information about the event is available at http://ah.utdallas.edu/season0708/gamwell.htm.

For information about the many musical, arts, theatre, dance, lectures and other performances and exhibitions held throughout the year at UT Dallas, please call 972-UTD-ARTS (972-883-2787) or e-mail utdarts@utdallas.edu. People with disabilities in need of special accommodations may call (972) 883-2982, Texas Relay Operator: 1-800-RELAYVV.

Media contact: Kristi Barrus, UT Dallas, (972) 883-2972, kristi.barrus@utdallas.edu


Lynn Gamwell’s book Exploring the Invisible studies links between art, science and spirituality. She has also co-written or edited books on dreams and mental illness.