Flame of Arabia - Infinity of the Zero

“Fuego de Arabia”, the flower of a desert painted to combine the Western Arabic numbers (clockwise) from “1” to “0,” and 28 Arabic letters in the shape of spiral-the symbol of infinity.

Arabic culture is defined independently of religious identity, and pre-dates the rise of Islam. During the Middle Ages, Arabic was a major vehicle of traditions in Europe, especially in science, mathematics, and philosophy.

This painting is dedicated to Arabic mathematicians and scientists of the ninth- and tenth-centuries for their developments in Algebra (Al-Jabr = "reunion" in Arabic) and the subsequent passage of the western Arabic Numeral system to Europe and the rest of the world.

© 2009, acrylic on canvas, 36" x 60" (91.5cm x 152.5cm)