World War I totally disrupted the mathematical communities of eastern Europe.  Rather than try to re-build comprehensive university programs in several areas of research, Sierpinski, Kuratowski, Banach and others decided to work together in the emerging field of abstract spaces.  They soon became known as the "Polish School."  Their first international recognition came from publishing a new journal, Fundamenta Mathematicae (1920), devoted to set theory and related topics, and not to their work in topology.  Indeed, the publication of Banach's dissertation in 1922 has been called the birth of functional analysis.

Still, an interest in abstract spaces flourished.  As early as 1915, Sierpinski described a "gasket" or a "triangle" with repeated and proportionally reduced areas.  Today these shapes are widely known as "fractals."  Sierpinski's triangles would later emerge to be among the most recognizable shapes or patterns in all computer graphics. 

As Botticelli gave birth to Venus by using foam of the sea, the recursive power of the computer would lift Sierpinski's triangles to a heightened level of prominence.