October 8, 2004 - January 8, 2005

Natural Symmetry explores the life and work of 19th century artist and biologist, Ernst Haeckel. Professor of zoology at the University of Jena, Haeckel discovered the radiolarian, a single-celled organism living on the bottom of the sea and occurring in amazing variety. The diversity of these life forms, unknown until then, were endlessly fascinating and with the aid of a microscope, Haeckel painstakingly drew 4000 of these beautiful and complex creatures. In his classic work, Art Forms in Nature, he published 100 lithographed plates of his designs illustrating the fusion of science and art, in a work that soon influenced Art Nouveau design and architecture.