Einstein and early 20th Century avant-garde art: points of contact?

TL;DR

This paper examines the proposed historical links between early 20th-century avant-garde art movements, especially Cubism, and contemporary scientific ideas like Einstein's Relativity, questioning whether these connections are historically accurate or imaginative.

Contribution

The paper critically analyzes the validity of claimed connections between avant-garde art and Einstein's theories, highlighting the likelihood of these links being more speculative than factual.

Findings

No evidence Einstein was interested in avant-garde art.

Artists likely unaware of complex scientific theories.

Cultural influences may have inspired perceived links.

Abstract

Art history linked some early 20th Century avant-garde visual art movements to contemporary systems of ideas in mathematics and theoretical physics. One of the proposed connections is the one that might have existed between Cubism and Relativity, or more precisely, between Picasso and Einstein. The suggested links are similarity (in a weak version) or identity (in a strong version) in matters of space, time and simultaneity. It is possible, however, that these supposed links of Einstein and avant-garde art movements were more the product of the imagination of historians and critics, than the result of connections between painters and scientists. On the one hand, the visual arts (in contrast to music, as far as we now) were of no interest to Einstein, who, moreover, did not seem inclined or knowledgeable enough to appreciate advanced forms. On the other hand, Einstein's theories fell outside the artists' ken, let alone their understanding, although there are firm clues pointing to the fact that repercussions of those theories in the press and in literary circles could have fired the imagination of some artists.