The Art of Ofey

Richard Feynman's Little-Known Sketches & Drawings

by Maria Popova

Just like Sylvia Plath and Queen Victoria, Nobel-winning physicist Richard Feynman — champion of scientific culture, graphic novel hero, crusader for integrity, holder of the key to science, adviser of future generations, bongo player — was a surprisingly gifted semi-secret artist. He started drawing at the age of 44 in 1962, shortly after developing the visual language for his famous Feynman diagrams, after a series of amicable arguments about art vs. science with his artist-friend Jirayr "Jerry" Zorthian — the same friend to whom Feynman's timeless ode to a flower was in response. Eventually, the two agreed that they'd exchange lessons in art and science on alternate Sundays. Feynman went on to draw — everything from portraits of other prominent physicists and his children to sketches of strippers and very, very many female nudes — until the end of his life.