Are art and science separated by an unbridgeable divide? Can they find common ground? In this new book, neuroscientist Eric R. Kandel, whose remarkable scientific career and deep interest in art give him a unique perspective, demonstrates how science can inform the way we experience a work of art and seek to understand its meaning. Kandel illustrates how reductionism--the distillation of larger scientific or aesthetic concepts into smaller, more tractable components--has been used by scientists and artists alike to pursue their respective truths. He draws on his Nobel Prize-winning work revealing the neurobiological underpinnings of learning and memory in sea slugs to shed light on the complex workings of the mental processes of higher animals.

Part I: Two Cultures Meet in the New York SchoolIntroduction1. The Emergence of an Abstract School of Art in New YorkPart II: A Reductionist Approach to Brain Science2. The Beginning of a Scientific Approach to the Perception of Art3. The Biology of the Beholder's Share: Visual Perception and Bottom-Up Processing in Art4. The Biology of Learning and Memory: Top-Down Processing in ArtPart III: A Reductionist Approach to Art5. Reductionism in the Emergence of Abstract Art6. Mondrian and the Radical Reduction of the Figurative Image7. The New York School of Painters8. How the Brain Processes and Perceives Abstract Images9. From Figuration to Color Abstraction10. Color and the Brain11. A Focus on Light12. A Reductionist Influence on FigurationPart IV: The Emerging Dialogue Between Abstract Art and Science13. Why Is Reductionism Successful in Art?14. A Return to the Two CulturesAcknowledgmentsNotesReferencesIllustration CreditsIndex