From the Museum: the Art of Thinking

Abstract

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it – Aristotle Art is a lie that enables us to realise the truth – Picasso It is with great pleasure and a sense of adventure that we introduce a new feature in this month's European Respiratory Journal [1] focusing on the creative arts as essential complements to the scientific method in the never-ending quest of knowing our world. The primary purpose of this series over the next 12 months will be to use key pieces of revolutionary European art spanning the last 500 years to anchor “musings” on the “Art of Thinking” and spark cross-disciplinary conversations, insights and extrapolations between the Arts, Science and Philosophy. From the outset, our challenge is to elevate your “thinking about thinking” and to creatively engage with new thought as it both defined and was derivative of the human mind during key periods of European artistic and scientific development commencing with Renaissance awakenings, through the passions of the Romantic age, Enlightenment's revelations and the powers of Symbolism, culminating in Modern art's abstractions. The specific artworks selected for this series can be considered revolutionary …