Perfect Symmetry

We all remember studying symmetry at school: practicing folding a shape along an axis, so the two halves match up.

Whether it's the wings of a butterfly, a leaf from a tree, an individual snowflake or a flawless face; symmetry is truly everywhere. Artists have always been inspired by nature and their surroundings, and like the varying depictions of nature throughout art history, artists have been equally inspired by symmetry in their respective movements.

Since the 17th century, “French formal garden" landscapers have applied mathematical laws of symmetry when designing gardens. They create an axis that crosses the length of the garden, from which they draw diagonal and perpendicular axes in order to organise the distribution of plants. Box hedges and planting beds are resized into perfectly symmetrical shapes, which can be seen in the reigning example of French formal gardening; Versailles. As a result, an incredible sense of harmony is created, and is still achieved today through Le Notre's genius landscaping strategies. The Garden “à la française" evolved from the French Renaissance garden, a style which was inspired by the Italian Renaissance garden at the beginning of the 16th century. The gardens were designed to represent the two ideals of the Renaissance; harmony and order.

Symmetry has transcended the boundaries of time, location and religion, where even the most famous structures in the world observe strict perspective and symmetry rules. The Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt is over 4500 years old, and yet its square foundation was still built on 4 axes of symmetry. Meanwhile the Taj Mahal in India was also planned with an emphasis on bilateral symmetry, running along a central axis of the main features. Bilateral symmetry emphasises ideas of pairing, and reflects intellectual and spiritual notions of universal harmony.

Some film directors swear by a symmetrical plan when creating a movie, which can be seen in Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel and Darjeeling Limited or Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and A Clockwork Orange.  Symmetry has undoubtedly inspired all areas of the arts, and is especially prevalent in painting and photography, where it brings a long sought after harmony to the works.

French artist and symmetry enthousiast, Angélique Robin, produces drawings that can take up to 12-30 hours to complete. Her series, Meat, was created with felt pen and Chinese black ink. Her kaleidoscopic images are inspired by photos of corpses, naked women and pieces of meat. It is as though she is projecting her works into an alternate dimension, where she seeks to materialise ideas of perversion, corruption and lust.

Photographer, Oliver Pinchart, captures shots of buildings like the Picasso Museum and the Place des Victoires in Paris. He then deforms and manipulates these images along two vertical and horizontal axes. This allows him to achieve similar visual effects to sci-fi films such as Christopher Nolan's, Inception.

Let yourself be enchanted by the laws of symmetry through our unique selection of works which includes, paintings, photographs and drawings. Find the work of internationally renowned artists such as Vasarely, Philippe Decrausat and Invader on Artsper now.