Save Outdoor Sculpture, Illinois, Chicago survey, 1992. Image on file. unsigned The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Tree branches in art throughout history follow geometric rules related to fractal geometry. 'Almond blossom' by Vincent van Gogh.

Piet Mondrian painted the same tree in "The gray tree" (left) and "Blooming apple tree" (right). Viewers can readily discern the tree in "The gray tree" with a branch diameter scaling exponent of 2.8.

What makes a tree a tree? Or rather, why can we recognize trees in even quite abstract depictions when they are so varied in nature? Researchers have found a clue in the branches, and used math to ...