Within a mirrored box, framed in one of the Spacearium's dark, shining pylons, stands an assemblage of crystal geometric forms, dominated by the engraved portrait of Albert Einstein, which appears on a thin square block.
The box appears to reflect to infinity all of the forms within it -- the portrait, blocks, prisms, cubes, spheres, hemispheres; the forms, in turn, partially reflect each other. Thus the geometric forms join with and transform the portrait through simple phenomena of light and lens, as though to exemplify Einstein's words engraved on one of the crystal blocks: "The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science."
This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.
United States of America
ART-Sculpture
Sculpture, Albert Einstein
Paul Schulze
Roland Erlacher
Stueben Glass Company
Yousuf Karsh
Large flat square of glass with an etching of Albert Einstein's face. Piece 15.
3-D (Large flat square of glass with Einstein's face): 44.4 × 43.8 × 2.5cm, 14.1kg (1 ft. 5 1/2 in. × 1 ft. 5 1/4 in. × 1 in., 31lb.)
A19810656000
Commissioned from Stueben Glass Company for the opening of the Albert Einstein Spacearium by the National Air and Space Museum.
National Air and Space Museum
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