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Jonty Hurwitz
Jonty Hurwitz
Born (1969-09-02) 2 September 1969 (age 54)
Johannesburg, South Africa
Known forSculpture and Financial Technology
Websitejontyhurwitz.com

Jonty Hurwitz, born 2 September 1969 in Johannesburg, is a sculptor and engineer living in London. He is best known for his scientifically inspired artworks, anamorphic sculpture and for the smallest models ever created of the human form.[1] Hurwitz's work focuses not only on the aesthetics of art itself, but on how the human brain perceives it.

"Jonty Hurwitz is very clearly a polymath in the same vein as Da Vinci," wrote art critic Katherine Tyrrell, "He's one of the very few people I've met who integrates science and art in a convincing way and who also has an imperative which involves developing new ways of doing and new ways of seeing. This is very much art of today and it seems to me to be the type of art which will be of great interest to major contemporary art collections."[2].

The Art of Jonty Hurwitz[edit]

Hurwitz's early body of sculpture was first written about by art critic Estelle Lovatt in early 2011 in an article for Art of England Magazine where she described him as follows: "Thinning the divide gap between art and science, Hurwitz is cognisant of the two being holistically co-joined in the same way as we are naturally, comfortably split between our spiritual and operational self.".[3]

Until late 2008 Hurwitz had never produced any sculpture. In 2009 his first ever sculpture 'Yoda and the Anamorph' won the People’s Choice award in the Maidstone Museum and Art Gallery Bentliff Prize.[4]. Later in 2009 he won the Noble Sculpture Prize[5] and was commissioned to install his first large scale work (a nude study of his father called 'Dietro di me') in the Italian medieval village Colletta di Castelbianco. In 2010 he was selected as a finalist for the 4th International Arte Laguna Prize in Venice, Italy[6].

A turning point came in January 2013 when Hurwitz's anamorphic work was discovered by prominent art blogger Christopher Jobson[7] and within days of being posted had gone viral on the internet. In a short documentary about Hurwitz's "Generation Pi" philosophy by Vera Productions [8] it is estimated that the sculpture received 20 million views online in the space of a few weeks.

Following on from the internet explosion of his anamorphic works, in early 2013 Hurwitz was introduced to the Savoy Hotel by London art agent Sally Vaughan. Hurwitz was commissioned to be Artist in Residence at the hotel[9] and produce a sculpture of the hotel’s historically iconic Kaspar the Cat.[10]. Hurwitz lived for several months in the hotel producing the sculpture. Prior to Hurwitz child laureate Michael Morpurgo was artist in residence producing his novel “Kaspar the Cat”.

In the same year Hurwitz was also nominated for the Threadneedle Prize and exhibited a collection at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. By late 2013, in a special edition of Art of England on portraiture, Hurwitz was cited as the #1 portrait artist in the UK.[11]. In January 2014 Hurwitz was voted #46 in the top 100 artists of 2013 by the leading american art site, Empty Kingdom.[12] In the same month, Hurwitz's anamorphic work was blogged as "The best of 2013" by the American Art and Culture magazine, Juxtapoz.[13]. In 2013 Hurwitz's work was also curated by Science Gallery International for a touring group show entitled ‘Illusion’ curated by the by Trinity College Dublin. The show presents a collection of prominent installation artworks from around the world that affect human perception. The was a sell-out success in Dublin (2013) and led to a 2014/2015 tour in the USA[14] where it attracted over 170,000 visitors.[15]

Hurwitz’s presence as an Internet art phenomenon was again established in late 2014 when he released a series of “nano sculptures” under the title of Trust. The works again web viral being seen by an estimated 20 million people. This series of works was particularly interesting because the captured the imagination of both the scientific and art community, being cited by amonng others, Nature Journal[16], Scientific American[17], Popular Science and Phys.org[18].

Anamorphic Sculpture[edit]

Hurwitz has produced a significant body of work using both oblique (perspective) and catoptric (mirror) anamorphosis. In an interview with Christopher Jobson, Hurwitz explains his anamorphic inspiration as follows: “I have always been torn between art and physics. In a moment of self-doubt in 2008, I wondered into the National Portrait Gallery and stumbled across a strange anamorphic piece by William Scrots (Portrait of Edward VI, 1546). Followed shortly down the aisle by The Ambassadors (Hans Holbein, 1533). My life changed forever. I rushed home and within hours was devouring the works of Esher, Da Vinci and many more. In a breath I had found “brothers” in a smallish group of artists spanning 500 years with exactly the same dilemma as me. Within two months I was deep in production of my first work. My art rests on the shoulders of giants, and I am grateful to them.”[19]

Anamorphosis as a form of art has a long history. A page in Leonardo Da Vinci’s note book (folio 35 verso a of the Codex Atlanticus) shows two strangely elongated sketches of a child's head and an eye. These distorted and hesitant drawings, the first known anamorphoses c.1485.” [20]

In the mid-18th Century anamorphosis was also used by Jacobite artists to secretly depict images of Bonnie Prince Charlie in the wake of brutal English censorship[21].

Hurwitz, however, pioneered catoptric sculpture. Until the creation of his first work 'Rejuvenation', anamorphic sculpture is not known to have existed in art history. In his online talks Hurwitz explains that this is a function of processing power and that whilst painting is possible in a mirror, three dimensional anamorphosis could only have come into being with the advent of powerful computers. Each of his sculptures involves billions of calculations[22] using an algorithm derived from the mathematical constant π[23][24]. Based on the this, Hurwitz's work is representational of our time in a way that other more traditional works of art cannot be. Hurwitz asserts that his art is “contemporary to the millisecond”[25].

Kinetic Art curator and director of the London Kinetica Museum, Dianne Harris described Hurwitz's art as follows "The works of polymath Jonty Hurwitz are contemporary trompe l'oeil, at first glance appearing abstract, but in mirrored reflections, representational.".[26]

Hurwitz Catoptric Sculptures[edit]

Hurwitz Oblique Sculptures[edit]

Nano Sculpture[edit]

In 2014, Hurwitz pioneered a new sculptural technique using multiphoton lithography[27] and photogrammetry[28] to create the world’s smallest human portraits of his first love. The works of art were inspired by the 19th Century marble sculpture of Cupid and Psyche by Antonio Canova, part of the permanent collection of the Louvre Museum, Paris. Hurwitz’s works are so tiny that they are invisible to the human eye, able to be placed on the forehead of an ant. Smaller details of the works are at approximately the 300 nanometer scale, similar to the wavelengths of visible light and are therefore near impossible by the laws of physics to see in the visible spectrum. The only way to observe these works is through a non-optical method of magnification like a Scanning Electron Microscope. To create these works Hurwitz collaborated with a team of over 20 people, including Stephan Hengsbach of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Yehiam Prior of the Weizmann Institute of Science, an art project centred in the world of academic Quantum physics. The works are currently being evaluated by the Guinness Book of Records.

In an interview with Beautiful/Decay Hurwitz explains the philosophy behind the works: “As technology starts to evolve faster than our human perception is able to handle, the line between science and myth becomes blurred. We live in an era where the impossible has finally come to pass. We have, in our own little way we have become demigods of creation in our physical world…. The nano works that I present to you here represent more that just a feat of science though. They represent the moment in history that we ourselves are able to create a full human form at the same scale as the sperm that creates us in order to facilitate the creation.”[29]

In Hurwitz’s typically disruptive fashion, offers up a paradoxical “The Emperors New Clothes” element. In an online interview with Slashdot, Hurwitz himself asks the question “How can something you can't see be art?”[30] By basing his work on the myth of Cupid and Psyche he also suggests that our belief in modern science isn't that different from the faith our ancestors had in the demigods.[31] The final irony is that the sculptures were destroyed by a touch one week before the images were published on the Internet[32].

Images of Jonty Hurwitz's nano sculptures can be seen on his official site

Technology[edit]

In the mid-90’s Hurwitz arrived in London following his travels in India and got his first job researching financial data visualization for Gilbert de Botton, Chairman and Founder of Global Asset Management (GAM). During this period he was exposed to de Botton’s pioneering open architecture model of asset management. It was Jonty’s close relationship with de Botton, also a major British art collector, that exposed him to the art world. The two maintained a close friendship until de Botton's death in 2000.

Hurwitz left Global Asset Management after 2 years forming his own company, Delve, to further R&D in data visualisation and reporting. Jonty’s main client became de Botton himself. In 1996 GAM launched its financial reporting technology built by Hurwitz, which instantly attracted attention in the financial media, winning several awards. Hurwitz’s newly formed graphics and software team evolved over several years publishing several visualization projects (the list is not exhaustive):

  • 1997 News International visual archives on the Cold War and the Industrial Revolution, Published by News International
  • 1998 Biosys an environmental simulation published by Take 2 Interactive.
  • 1998 Hurwitz was selected by the British Foreign Office to build a 3D engine called “Oceans of Innovation” to represent the leading edge of British Innovation. The work was nominated for a BATA Award.[33].

Over the years from 2000 to 2005 Hurwitz signed up a large base of asset managers for his reporting and analysis technology. In 2005, Hurwitz’s company Delve was acquired by Alternative Investment Market listed company Statpro Group PLC (SOG) for an undisclosed price[34].

Hurwitz joined Statpro as Creative Director where he designed the first Cloud Computing analytics and risk platform for asset data. In 2008 Statpro launched its flagship product Statpro Revolution which was the fruit of this R&D. By 2014, eight out of the top ten largest asset managers in the world were Statpro Clients[35].

Hurwitz was approached in 2007 to design and build the first real-time online consumer loan system in the world. He joined Wonga in January 2008 as Chief Technology Officer of the startup. During this period Wonga’s technology won several awards (listed below). By 2011 Wonga had begun to attract a huge amount of criticism and Hurwitz, as the inventor of the technology found himself with not enough influence to guide the now large company's use of his designs. After several failed attempts at changing Wonga's strategy, he resigned from his operational role in November 2011, quietly releasing his sculpture entitled Co-Founder.

Despite the complex outcome of Wonga, the technology is now credited with several ground-breaking innovations in the financial services industry:

  • Real-time risk technology. Wonga’s risk engine was the first ever to evaluate the credit worthiness of a customer in near real time on the internet based on the collection of data from alternative sources in combination with traditional credit scores. The first working “big data” consumer risk technology[37] with the ability to transfer money to customers within 12 minutes on the basis of the decision. On the back of this real-time ability, the business grew extremely fast.

Following his departure from Wonga, Hurwitz continued to commit much of his time to the budding startup fintech scene in London while at the same time building up his body of artwork. In late 2011 Hurwitz backed the young visionary Damian Kimmelman, to build a next-generation data provider Duedil[38]. Duedil has since been dubbed "The Bloomberg of private companies" and has emerged a one of the key data providers in Europe and the UK[39].

In 2011 Hurwitz seed funded the disruptive financial technology startup behalf.com[40].

In 2012 Hurwitz backed the UK startup bank for young people: Meet Osper.

Early life[edit]

Jonty Hurwitz, born 2 September 1969 in Johannesburg, South Africa to Selwin, a hotelier and entrepreneur and Marcia, a drama lecturer and teacher. Jonty spent his early life living in small hotels in rural towns in South Africa while his father built up his business.

Education[edit]

Jonty studied Electrical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg from 1989 to 1993. His major was Signal Processing. He then joined the University of Cape Town Remote Sensing Group as a full time researcher under Professor Michael Inggs, publishing a paper on radar pattern recognition. [41]

Following his research post, Hurwitz travelled for a long period of time in India studying Yoga and wood carving.

Charity[edit]

Hurwitz is founder of the Separated Child Foundation which supports unaccompanied refugee children arriving on UK shores.

Awards and Nominations[edit]

Art and Design

  • 1998 BAFTA Interactive Nomination, Best use of moving image (Delve)
  • 1998 BIMA, British Interactive Media Award (Delve)
  • 1999 IVCA, International Visual Communications Award (Delve)
  • 2009, Noble Sculpture Prize, Liguria, Italy
  • 2009, Maidstone Museum Bentlif Art Prize, People Choice Award, United Kingdom
  • 2000 IVCA Nomination, Award for Innovation (Delve)
  • 2000 New Media Age Nomination, Special Award for Innovation (Delve)
  • 2010 Arte Laguna Prize, Finalist, Venice, Italy 
  • 2010, Gofigurative Art Prize, Peoples Vote, London, United Kingdom

Technology Awards and Nominations (teams under Hurwitz's creative direction)

  • 2000 BIMA Nomination, New Consumer Focused Services Online (Delve)   
  • 2001 EMMA, Technical Excellence, Interactivity (Delve)     
  • 2002 BIMA Nomination, Banking and Financial Services Technology (Delve)   
  • 2008 Highly commended - Orange Best Use of Technology (Wonga)
  • 2009 IMA Outstanding Achievement Award - financial services category (Wonga)
  • 2009 Most Innovative Application of Technology - Customer, Financial Innovation Awards (Wonga)
  • 2009 Credit Risk Team of the Year, Credit Today Awards (Wonga)
  • 2010 Best Use of Technology, Fast Growth Business Awards (Wonga)
  • 2010 Best Site of the Year - Banking & Bill Payment Category, Webby Awards (Wonga)
  • 2010 2nd in Guardian’s Tech Media Invest 100, Guardian (Wonga)
  • 2010 1st in ‘10 European Technology Companies to Watch’, Telegragh (Wonga)
  • 2010 8th in Startups 100, Startups.co.uk - recognises the UK’s most innovative new companies (Wonga)

Exhibitions[edit]

  • 2014, Art and the Internet, Gofigurative Gallery, Hampstead, London
  • 2014 Kinetica Art Fair, Truman Brewry, London
  • 2014 Illusion Exhibition USA tour with the Dublin Science Gallery, San Francisco
  • 2014 Illusion Exhibition USA tour with the Dublin Science Gallery, San Diego
  • 2014 Threadneedle Prize Exhibition, ICA London
  • 2013 Savoy Hotel, Unveiling of Kaspar the Anamorphic Cat sculpture, Solo show
  • 2013: Old Street Art, Gofigurative Gallery, Solo Show
  • 2012: Kinetica Art Fair, London
  • 2011 Tower 42, City of London, Solo show, UK
  • 2011 Art London, Royal Hospital, Chelsea, London, UK
  • 2011 Bloomsbury Art Show (represented by Arthur Ackerman Gallery), London, UK
  • 2011 Untitled Artists Fair, London, UK
  • 2010 Arthur Ackermann Gallery, Christmas Exhibition, London, UK
  • 2010 Unveiling of Dietro di me, Bernard Noble Sculpture Foundation, Colletta, Italy
  • 2010 Art London, Represented by Arthur Ackermann Gallery, London, UK   
  • 2010 Go Figurative Show, Real Broadgate, Broadgate Circle, London, UK
  • 2010 Go Figurative Show, Real Hampstead, St. Stephen's, London, UK
  • 2010 Untitled Art Fair, London, UK
  • 2010 Arte Laguna, Arsenale, Venice, and
  • 2009 Lloyd Gill Gallery Christmas Exhibition, UK
  • 2009 Bentlif Gallery, Maidstone Museum, UK

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Artist Creates Sculptures So Tiny They Can't Be Seen By The Human Eye". Huffington Post, Leigh Weingus. 14 November 2014.
  2. ^ "Kaspar's at the Savoy and Jonty Hurwitz's Anamorphic Art, Katherine Tyrrell". Making a Mark. May 2013.
  3. ^ "Art of England, Estelle Lovatt, Feb 2011 publication, p50" (PDF). Art of England. February 2011.
  4. ^ "Winner of Art Prize Announced". Kent Online. 6 February 2009.
  5. ^ "Bernard Noble Sculpture Prize". February 2011.
  6. ^ "Arte Laguna Exhibition Catalogue, p106" (PDF). Arte Laguna Prize. 2010.
  7. ^ "The skewed anamorphic sculptures and engineered illusions of Jonty Hurwitz". Christopher Jobson, Colossal. 21 January 2013.
  8. ^ "The Paintbrush of Mathematics". Vera Productions. March 2013.
  9. ^ "London's Savoy Hotel continues its artist in residence tradition". Artlyst. April 2013.
  10. ^ "A homage to Kaspar the friendly Cat checks in at the Savoy's new eatery". The Independent. April 2013.
  11. ^ "Six of the Best, Sally Vaughan, Aug 2013". Art of England. August 2013.
  12. ^ "Top 100 artists of 2013, Empty Kingdom". Empty Kingdom. 31 January 2014.
  13. ^ "Best of 2013: Sculpture by Jonty Hurwitz". Juxtapoz. 31 December 2013.
  14. ^ "Real fun at Fleet's 'Illusion' exhibit". U-T San Diego, Karla Peterson. 30 May 2014.
  15. ^ "Science Gallery Dublin honoured with dedicated 68c stamp". Business & Leadership Magazine. 7 January 2015.
  16. ^ "Image of the Month: November 2014". Nature Journal, Daniel Cressey. 5 December 2014.
  17. ^ "Physics Week in Review". Scientific American, Jennifer Ouellette. 20 December 2014.
  18. ^ "When science and art produce nanosculpture marvels". Phys.org, Nancy Owano. 18 November 2014.
  19. ^ "Anamorphic Sculptures Made With Algorithms". Twisted Sifter. 17 April 2013.
  20. ^ "Anamorphoses in the eyes of Leonardo". The Smithsonian, Holly Sloofman. 26 August 2009.
  21. ^ "How to Hide a Forbidden Image in Plain Sight". Core77, Rain Noe. 22 July 2014.
  22. ^ "Anamorphic Sculptures". Ignant. 13 January 2013.
  23. ^ "Anamorphic sculptures by Jonty Hurwitz". Design Boom. 21 January 2013.
  24. ^ "Kiss of Chytrid: Anamorphic art by Jonty Hurwitz". Urban Ghost Media. 5 February 2013.
  25. ^ "Contemporary Art is Measured in Milliseconds". NSFW Youtube, Vera Productions, Jonty Hurwitz. March 2013.
  26. ^ "Kinetica Museum Artist Profile, 2013". Kinetica. 2013.
  27. ^ "Trust". Chemical and Engineering News. 16 December 2014.
  28. ^ "Enter the Photo Studios of the 21st Century". All3DP. 29 December 2014.
  29. ^ "Jonty Hurwitz's sculptures are so small the can't be seen with the human eye". Beautiful/Decay. 12 November 2014.
  30. ^ "Ask Jonty Hurwitz about Art and Engineering". Slashdot. January 2015.
  31. ^ "Elegant Nano Sculptures Fit Comfortably Inside the Eye of a Needle". The Creators Project, Beckett Mufson. 13 November 2014.
  32. ^ "Artist spends ten months creating sculptures which are half the width of a human hair... only for his friend to accidentally crush them a few minutes later". Daily Mail, Stephanie Linning. December 2014.
  33. ^ "Bafta plugs into interactive awards ". BBC. 9 October 1998.
  34. ^ "Acquisition of Delve, a leading supplier of enterprise and web reporting". Proactive Investors. 4 July 2005.
  35. ^ "Eight out of the top ten largest asset managers in the world Statpro Clients ". Statpro. 20 October 2014.
  36. ^ "Your prosperity could depend on an Algorithm". Will Sawney,Guardian. 16 October 2011.
  37. ^ "The algorithm that beats your bank manager". Parmy Olson, Forbes. 15 March 2011.
  38. ^ "Duedil secures funding from Jonty Hurwitz". Growth Business, Thomas Hobbs. 14 December 2011.
  39. ^ "UK startup dubbed 'Bloomberg of private companies' raises $17m". Financial Times, Jonathan Moules. 3 March 2014.
  40. ^ "Challenged by Upstarts, Lenders try a New Strategy: Cooperation". New York Times, Randall Smith. 7 January 2015.
  41. ^ "Synthetic Range Profile Measurements of Aircraft, COMSIG-93, COMSIG '93:204 – 209, September 1993. M R Inggs, J.B. Hurwitz, and A. Langman". COMSIG. Retrieved 1993. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)

Category:Visual arts Category:Sculpture Category:Science Category:Technology Category:Innovation Category:Nanotechnology Category:Engineering Category:Design Category:University of the Witwatersrand alumni

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