The work of Case Western Reserve University students, scientists, artists and art historians who collaborated to develop an art algorithm that can distinguish different painters’ brush strokes “at the bristle level” continues to generate interest around the world.

• The Telegraph/MSN 1.7.2022: New AI technology will reveal which masterpieces really had the stroke of genius   Three CWRU researchers—Kenneth Singer, the Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics; Elizabeth Bolman, the Elsie B. Smith Professor in the Liberal Arts and chair of Art History; and Michael Hinczewski, the Warren E. Rupp Associate Professor of Physics—discussed their groundbreaking research using tools of artificial intelligence (AI) to distinguish the individual brushstrokes of one painter from another, a breakthrough that one observer said could mark “the dawn of a revolution in attribution” among art connoisseurs and historians.

• Smithsonian Magazine 1.10.2022: New Tech Can Distinguish Brush Strokes of Different Artists – Researchers used 3-D scanning and A.I. to identify artists from tiny samples of their paintings   Congratulations to CWRU physics PhD alum Mike McMaster, CWRU art history student Lauryn Smith, Prof. Ken Singer, Prof. Mike Hinczewski, Prof. Elizabeth Bolman & Cleveland Institute of Art students for their collaboration profiled in Smithsonian Magazine, January 2022.

• Cleveland.com 12.20. 2021: CWRU researchers developing technique that could identify fake artworks using artificial intelligence   CLEVELAND, Ohio — Art forgers of the world, beware. A team of art historians and scientists at Case Western Reserve University has developed a computer technique that can identify with near certainty which artist made a particular painting based on tiny details of brush marks that can’t be controlled by the artist and aren’t visible to the naked eye. The method combines data from the precise, three-dimensional mapping of a painting’s surface with analysis through artificial intelligence — a computer system based on the human brain and nervous system that can learn to identify and compare patterns.

• The Daily 12.13.2021:  Different strokes: Using artificial intelligence to tell art apart – Case Western Reserve University scientists, artists collaborate to develop art algorithm that can distinguish different painters’ brush strokes “at the bristle level”   A team of scientists and art historians at Case Western Reserve University say they have used tools of artificial intelligence (AI) to distinguish the individual brushstrokes of one painter from another… The “neural network stunned us by actually being able to tell with very high accuracy whose hand among four different art students had painted even a tiny fraction of a brushstroke,” Professor Ken Singer said. “We’ve uncovered what could be considered the unintentional style of a painter.”

“Neural network” describes a computer system modeled on the human brain and nervous system—one that learns, identifies and compares patterns. The neural network identified the correct artist 95% of the time from small parts of a brushstroke. Those strokes were roughly the diameter of a single paintbrush bristle.