Growth and Form was an exhibition produced by Richard Hamilton at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London, in 1951, in the context of the Festival of Britain.
It consisted of a large-scale installation – reconstructed in 2014 at Tate Modern, London, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid – that was inspired by the book of Scottish mathematician and biologist D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson, On Growth and Form (1917). Hamilton brought together a range of scientific and organic materials, using the most innovative and imaginative technologies of the moment. One of the effects of this exhibition was, as Hamilton wrote, the influence it may have upon design trends'.
Growth and Form is based on studies in biology and morphology. The newsletter of the ICA dated 28 December 1949 explained in respect of Hamilton’s exhibition: ‘Modern science has put at the disposal of artists and industrial designers a rich universe of new forms and discovered for them a new source of inspiration. Due to the schism between science and art, sufficient attention has still not been given to this material and its potentially revolutionary importance for modern design.’ Emphasis was put on the visual experience of the exhibition: art can expand its experiential universe if it is able to appreciate natural forms through scientific studies.
