“If you think about Dirac, he was a man of few words, but within those words was a logic that was simple, direct, and fundamental. Once you understand his ideas, you cannot help but marvel at them. I wondered what traditional Chinese phrase might describe one’s impression after reading his papers and grasping the importance of his work. I think the best phrase is: ‘Writing as clear as autumn waters, untouched by dust.’”
— Chen-Ning Yang, Beauty and Physics

This is a collection of recent papers I personally find beautiful, focused mostly (perhaps entirely) on computer graphics. The list will likely grow over time. Older, well-known works are not covered — there are simply too many to do them justice. What draws me to a paper is less its result than its shape: work that unifies separate approaches into a single framework, surfaces overlooked connections across subfields, or pairs solid mathematical or physical grounding with an elegant, powerful numerical scheme. This list reflects that taste, not merit — inclusion says nothing about a paper's practical impact, which I could not care less about.