Nobel Laureate Eric R. Kandel's Essays on Art and Science is an ambitious though somewhat repetitive and narrowly focused collection. Kandel presents a range of arguments about how neuroscience informs subjective responses to art. This is accompanied by the application of these ideas to the analysis of art and aesthetic movements. Almost all of this analysis is done with respect to the Vienna School of Art or Modernist artists of Jewish ancestry. Eventually, the essays just become actual art criticism, including a comparison of sculpture and painting. There are some interesting insights that Kandel's syncretic approach does generate. However, I worry Kandel's confidence in the neuroscience involved is a bit too robust. He is still apparently a credulous reader of the "mirror neuron" literature, which seems out of step with the current field. Kandel is in his mid-90s after-all so it is remarkable that he's managed to produce this collection.


Kandel is particularly preoccupied with the influence of Freudianism on the Vienna School and the zeitgeist of early 20th century Vienna. This was the cultural moment a bit prior to his birth. It is a bit like a child born in the aughts becoming obsessed with the totems of the 80s - a familiar phenomenon. Yet it is interesting this attachment has persisted so long and animated actual research projects. The alleged consilience between Modern art and the social awareness of unconscious processes in the brain seems plausible but also currently beyond the ken of science. It also risks impressing science into the service of ideas which cannot be science at all. Much of Freudian thought is quite unscientific. I would have like to have seen Kandel wrestle with some of these epistemological questions.


As the above hints, this is very much a collection inspired by pet ideas sustained by vicarious nostalgia. It will be of limited interest to most general readers. This is for those who are deeply interested in the subject matter or want to read all of Kandel's work (I fit loosely into both camps). This collection would have been greatly enhanced by an original essay that synthesized Kandel's comprehensive view of the nexus of art and science. A broader theoretical model would have helped knit this collection together. Further, these essay would have benefitted from thorough editing to prevent near verbatim recapitulations of arguments.

Overall, this was an interesting collection on the intersection between art, history, religion, psychology, and neuroscience. The writing was accessible- I think even someone who doesn’t generally interact with art or is at the beginning of their art journey could easily pick this up.

The one major issue with this book, which the author does explain in the preface, is the repetition. These essays were written for different audiences throughout the author’s career and weren’t edited to unify them into a cohesive collection. This didn’t bother me until the second half of the book where I started to get tired of having the same concept explained or the same study referenced.

This collection of essays based on speeches the author has given feels like a bit of a money grab, to be honest. Collections of lectures were vitally important in the past, when things weren't recorded and shared in a half dozen venues. As a book, these essays need more editing to avoid repetition, but also they may represent the work of a scholar who isn't as current with the rapidly changing field. And the title is misleading, as this is more about neuroscience than other STEM fields.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

I enjoyed both The Age of Insight, and Reductionism in Art and Brain Science, so when I saw a new book by Eric R. Kandel was available from NetGalley I was really excited. Essays on Art and Science contains seven essays that Kandel presented over the last decade to different audiences. I found the essays informative, even inspiring, each one exploring the neuroscience of viewing art, and I can understand why each new audience would be interested in the same information, but in a book it became repetitive. The facial recognition information that seemed a little out of place in essay one, could have been presented for the first time in essay two instead of repeated. Then in essay three when "See Chapter 2" was finally used, it was only for a figure and the complete text about facial recognition was repeated again. Though I enjoyed each essay individually, as a book it held too much repetition. I would give it three and a half stars.

This was an intriguing compilation of essays examining art through a scientific lens. Kandel, a leader in modern neuroscience, walks through different periods of history, eras of artwork, and discoveries in neuroscience. One major issue is that it's obvious that this is a compilation of essays published at various times because the content can be quite repetitive; at least seven topics were repeated almost verbatim in different essays. For a collection like this, it would seem important to make sure each topic is represented only once in the book. Overall a quick and compelling read.

I got a third in before I dnfed it.
So the title led me to believe this book would be about art, the arts and science as in STEM.
This book is more about linking psychology and neuroscience with art. Also there is a lot of historical background, which I guess gives it context but felt unnecessary.
The book makes some claims that Im not sure can be substantiated.
It focuses a lot on antisemitism somehow (which granted has been rampant for a long time in Europe).
I think at the very least a different title would help this book.
The author also used a lot of superlatives (best, greatest, grandest), which do not feel accurate.
For context I love art, art history and European history, but this was just not it.

Perusing a museum, your eyes fall on a piece with such moving composition that you feel as though you’re looking at a part of your own soul. Perhaps this is how Ronald Lauder, heir to the Estée Lauder cosmetics company, felt when he first saw Gustav Klimt’s painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer, wife of banker and sugar producer Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer.

Klimt portrayed Bloch-Bauer in a golden dress patterned with geometric shapes that appears to fade into a softly glowing background. In the 1950s, the painting hung in the Upper Belvedere Museum in Vienna, where Lauder visited it repeatedly, engrossed by its beauty. Finally, years later, the painting came on the market and he was able to purchase it. By that time, Lauder’s initial intrigue had turned into an addiction, wrote Nobel prize-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel in his book Essays on Art and Science. His brain was producing a chemical called dopamine that triggered neurons in a region called the orbitofrontal cortex in a reaction similar to romantic love. Just as with a drug, Lauder was hooked.

The anecdote is just one of many that Kandel uses to illustrate connections between art and psychology in seven in-depth essays. From the rise of modernism to the controversial abstract period, art has always elicited strong emotions and varied interpretations from its audiences, providing fertile ground for scientists interested in understanding the human mind.

Reciprocal relationships have also emerged. By way of example, Kandel uses the friendship between Gustav Klimt, journalist Berta Zuckerkandl, and her husband, anatomist Emil Zuckerkandl. The Zuckerkandls introduced Klimt to the work of pathologist Carl von Rokitansky, who performed over 60,000 autopsies at the Vienna General Hospital during the early 20th century, giving him a comprehensive understanding of human anatomy. Inspired by Rokitansky’s writings, as well as slides Emil showed him, Klimt began to incorporate biological concepts into his painting, such as rectangles that symbolized sperm and ovals that symbolized eggs.

Although sometimes dense, Kandel’s writing is skillful, elegant, and at times playful. His essays are likely to appeal most to readers with pre-existing interests in the history of art and/or psychology. The casual reader may at times feel overwhelmed by the breath of material Kandel covers, but may also appreciate the joy Kandel clearly takes in intertwining these two disciplines.

To best appreciate this book, in addition to being interested in neuroscience one must love art, and in particular Viennese art at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. I especially liked the chapter in which experiments were carried out that highlighted how abstract art is positioned at a "higher" level cerebrally speaking.

Per apprezzare al meglio questo libro, oltre che essere interessati alle neuroscienze bisogna amare l'arte, ed in particolare quella viennese a cavallo tra l'800 ed il 900. A me é piaciuto soprattutto il capitolo in cui si effettuavano esperimenti che hanno messo in luce come l'arta astratta si posiziona ad un livello "piú alto" celebralmente parlando.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.