Optical Art / Op Art - continued

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Optical art, or Op art as it is better known, is an abbreviation for Optical Art, a modern art movement that developed in the United States and Europe in the mid-1960s. Op art paintings exploit the fallibility of the eye through the use of optical illusions induced by abstract spiral or wavy patterns, stripes, spots, etc. Hungarian-born French painter Victor Vasarely (1908-) and British painter Bridget Riley (1931-) were leading exponents. The term was first coined in America's Time magazine in October 1964, and by 1965 it was well entrenched in the art world and soon spilled over into advertising and design in popular culture.

Movement in Squares (Serigraph)
Bridget Riley

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Bridget Riley is perhaps the best known of the op artists. Taking Vasarely's lead, she made a number of paintings consisting only of black and white lines. Rather than giving the impression of some real-world object, however, Riley's paintings frequently give the impression of movement or colour.

Riley later produced works in full colour, and other op artists have worked in colour as well, although these works tend to be less well known. Violent contrasts of colour are sometimes used to produce similar illusions of movement.

Other noted op artists include Jesús-Rafael Soto and Richard Anuszkiewicz.

In a sense all painting is based on tricks of visual perception: using rules of perspective to give the illusion of three-dimensional space, mixing colors to give the impression of light and shadow, and so on. Optical art involves the study of perception. Op artists use geometric shapes as a theme in their works. Included are symmetrical, illusionary, and optical discrepancy compositions. With Optical Art, the rules that the eye applies to makes sense of a visual image are themselves the "subject" of the artwork.

In the mid-20th century, artists such as Josef Albers, Victor Vasarely, and M.C. Escher experimented with Optical Art. Escher's work, although not abstract, also deals extensively with various forms of visual tricks and paradoxes.

In the 1960's, the term "Op Art" was coined to describe the work of a growing group of abstract painters led by Vasarely, Bridget Riley, and Rene Parola took its concepts to new heights. Other Op Artists included Richard Anuszkiewicz, Jesús-Rafael Soto, Kenneth Noland, François Morellet, and Lawrence Poons.

A comprehensive exhibition of op art, entitled The Responsive Eye, was organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, in 1965. This show did a great deal to make op art prominent, and many of the artists now considered important in the style exhibited there. Op art subsequently became tremendously popular, and op art images were used in a number of commercial contexts. Bridget Riley tried to sue an American company, without success, for using one of her paintings as the basis of a fabric design.

The rare inclusion of geometric optical art in art history texts suggests that critics often dismissed the genre as less painterly, intellectual or emotive than previous art movements. However, op art was a forward-thinking aesthetic that broke away from the norm, embracing social concerns with science and mathematics, and in doing so pushed the boundaries of fine art in popular culture.

Optical Art Posters

Apparition of a Face and a Fruit Dish Salvador Dali Buy This Art Print At AllPosters.com

Castle of Illusion Irvine Peacock Buy This Poster At AllPosters.com

Virtual Infinity Buy this Poster at AllPosters.com

Waterfall M.C. Escher Buy This Art Print At AllPosters.com

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