As part of my project, I gave a talk at the Institut Jacques Monod about Art and Evolution 
If you think about art history, there's a WHOLE lot more art about religion than there is about science.
This reflects reality! Religion has been around a lot longer than science, and the Catholic church in particular spent a ton of money on art.
But there was one area of art where science was sneaking in, way before Darwin. Starting from cave painting, artists have always observed and depicted the natural world.
A great example is Maria Sibylla Merian, the 17th c German illustrator, who was a pioneer in scientific accuracy, showing many stages of life of various species in her work.
Decades before Darwin published "On the Origin of Species", John James Audubon was cataloguing birds
In the 19th century, as dinosaur skeletons were being unearthed, artists were taking note. This is "Life in the Jurassic Sea" by Robert Farren, 1850
Don't you love that? CHOMP
A little bit later, Ernst Haeckel, who was a scientist, philosopher and artist, began to explore the microscopic world with his paintings and engravings of radiolarians and other microorganisms.
After the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1859, artists began responding to his work - positively, negatively and imaginatively.
I think it's hard for us now to imagine the societal impact of the publication of the theory of evolution in 1859
Some people flat-out rejected it, of course (and still do). Some fixated on the idea that humans descended from apes.
A study of the press at the time shows that educated people saw evolution as "an assault on traditional Christian doctrines (especially creation, the uniqueness of the soul/spirit of humanity, and “providence”"
You can read more here: thehumanist.com/features/artic…
Anything this big, controversial and paradigm-shaking had to produce some art. And so it did.
Even though Haeckel is a controversial figure for a number of reasons and is generally considered more a follower of Lamarck, he was definitely inspired by Darwin and created a lot of work based directly on The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man.
It took a loooooong time for artists to stop depicting humans as the pinnacle of evolution (this is by Haeckel)
Did I say a long time? Actually they never stopped
Coffee break! Back in a bit
OK, I'm back. In the immediate wake of Origin of Species, one artist went all in: Abbott Handerson Thayer smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a…
He went straight from painting ethereal angels to painting animal camouflage.
He was so sure that camouflage was the sole key to natural selection that he refused to see a role for sexual selection via flamboyant colors.
Here's his painting of a peacock : D
Around the same time, French artist Odilon Redon took Darwin’s ideas and spun them off in a more fanciful direction, producing his own book called “Les Origines” in 1883 with images of creatures blended from humans, plants and animals.
More of Redon's "Origines"
Not going to tweet out this whole story, it's too long, but the tale of Emmanuel Frémiet's sculpture "Gorilla Carrying off a Negress" is totally bonkers ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/stowed-a…
...and definitely intersects with the shifting public views of the theory of evolution in the late 19th century
I'm going to skip forward now and look at some modern artists exploring evolution in their work
One major figure working in the tradition of natural history illustration is Walton Ford, an American artist who is considered the Audubon of today.
He works in a similar style, usually making large, highly naturalistic watercolors, but with an edge. Instead of leaving nature pure and pristine, he usually makes some reference to how humans are messing with it. (Notice the detail of the burning building)
Let’s look at how two different modern artists approach the idea of extinction through the image of the passenger pigeon, a species that was very widespread in the United States in the 19th century, but was hunted to extinction in the early 20th century.
First, here’s a classic painting by Louis Agassiz Fuertes of the passenger pigeon.
Here’s how Walton Ford sees it. I personally find this image kind of terrifying. I don’t know if I want to save this bird from extinction!
And here’s how another American artist, @bballengee, portrayed the loss of this species – he just snipped it right out of the picture. It’s a little more sad and poignant.
Alexis Rockman is another artist who deals with extinction in his work – he specifically looks at the effect of man-made climate change and habitat destruction in his paintings.
The humans are pretty much gone, but they left the place a mess, and other species have suffered a lot, like this mutant frog in the painting Washington Square, which envisions a future New York City.
That theme of mutations caused by environmental damage is also explored in environmental scientist/artist @bballengee's work. In these “Reliquaries” he used cleared and stained frogs to show the effects of water pollution.
Also doing fascinating work with evolution is the Mexican artist Damian Ortega. About 10 years ago, he spent some time in Nigeria with the Gashaka Primate Project, observing scientists working with a community of apes.
His show “Apestraction” was based on this experience, touching on the huge genetic overlap between apes and humans, the dynamics of the ape community and the apes’ use of tools.
One of the centerpieces of the show was this DNA helix made of the tools that the apes had fashioned out of sticks.
Also evolution related, some artists are working directly with DNA to make art. First, Eduardo Kac, who created what he calls “a plantimal”, a new life form he created, a genetically engineered flower that is a hybrid of himself and a Petunia.
English artist Charlotte Jarvis worked with scientists at the Netherlands Proteomics Centre to bio-engineer a bacterium so that it has The Universal Declaration of Human Rights encoded into its DNA sequence.
Apples which were grown at The Hague, seat of the International Courts of Justice, were ‘contaminated’ with the synthetic DNA extracted from the bacteria.
These 'fruits from the tree of knowledge' have been sent to genomics laboratories around the world and participating scientists asked to sequence the DNA, find the message hidden within and send back a translation. Scientists were also asked to eat the fruit.
Back in a bit to talk about artists working with model organisms, including me.
One of the ways that scientists study evolution is by looking at changes in relatively simple organisms like bacteria, worms and fruit flies.
These model organisms are appealing to artists, too, as a way to demonstrate evolution visually
Here are some beautiful C. elegans by Greg Dunn, a neuroscience PhD turned artist. He often works in a style influenced by Asian art, and he’s inspired by what he sees under the microscope.
And a glass one by @lukejerram
Brian Knep has done a lot of work with C. elegans, including this project called Worm/Constructs where he created a habitat for worms and filmed them while they explored it, lived and died in it.
Now of course our best friend, Drosophila Melanogaster!
I love this breathtaking image of a drosphila brain by Greg Dunn.
I love this breathtaking image of a drosphila brain by Greg Dunn.
Helen Pynor has been combining art and science for years. Her show at the Crick institute in London was made in collaboration with scientists and includes images of drosophila brains.
This beautiful glass piece by Jiyong Lee depicts a drosophila embryo
And me! During my visit to @Biol4Ever lab, we made some ink paintings of the fruit flies they work on
After I got home, I made a bunch of new work based on what I had learned, including a series of drosophila wing paintings
and some mutant butterflies inspired by @evolvwing's CRISPR work
...and even some evolving bacteria
I am the Monet of fruit flies ; ) culturespotmc.com/like-flies-to-…
You can buy some of these pieces in my Etsy shop etsy.com/shop/artologic…
and frankly, if you've made it this far down the thread, you should invite me to give this presentation to your lab or department.
