Mathematicians and neuroscientists identify fractal signature in abstract art absent from AI images

A study published in PLOS Computational Biology and reported by Scientific American has identified a numerical value, 0.4, as a fractal dimension common to works by Rothko, Kandinsky, Pollock, Malevich, and Maria Jarema. The research team, led by mathematician Shabnam N. Kadir (University of Hertfordshire) and neuroscientist Jacek Rogala (University of Warsaw), analyzed twelve works by Polish artist Lidia Kot. The number 0.4 represents a fractal signature that abstract artists produce intuitively, while AI-generated images lack this property. The study suggests that human-created abstract art possesses a subtle mathematical structure that machines do not replicate.