March 25, 2003

Art-Forms in Nature

Here are a few images from Ernst Haeckel’s portfolio Kunstformen der Natur (1899-1904), an outstandingly beautiful album of plates emphasising the seemingly artful elegance of natural forms.

'Phaeodaria' plate from Haeckel's 'Kunstformen der Natur.' 'Ciliata' plate from Haeckel's 'Kunstformen der Natur.'

Haeckel achieved great fame in his day as a populariser of Darwin’s theories. He was, moreover, one of the first to consider psychology as a branch of physiology, and also proposed many now ubiquitous coinages such as phylum and ecology.

'Diatomea' plate from Haeckel's 'Kunstformen der Natur.' 'Tubulariae' plate from Haeckel's 'Kunstformen der Natur.'

On the other hand, most of Haeckel’s speculative theories were later discredited. Worse, he was a fraud and a racist. Even so, it is surely going too far to say, as at least one creationist site has it, that ‘Haeckel provided the malign influence and pernicious inspiration that were the indirect cause of two world wars and the atrocities of the holocaust.’

'Siphonophorae' plate from Haeckel's 'Kunstformen der Natur.' 'Discomedusae' plate from Haeckel's 'Kunstformen der Natur.'

The present images are all taken from Kurt Stüber’s site (full Kunstformen index here). I first arrived at this link by way of logodrome.

'Ophiodea' plate from Haeckel's 'Kunstformen der Natur.' 'Discoidea' plate from Haeckel's 'Kunstformen der Natur.'
Posted by misteraitch at March 25, 2003 04:24 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Thank you for these stunning color prints. I have a dover reprint of the Haekel work (in black and white, alas), which despite lacking color, is an endless source of design ideas.

Lots of people whose work I greatly admire are or were not very nice people. Alas. I refuse to stop admiring their work, although sometimes my pleasure is tempered.

Posted by: Felicity on March 26, 2003 05:52 AM

Love these. The images look so alife!

Posted by: Fire and ice on March 28, 2003 03:20 PM
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