Op Art, or Optical Art (original) (raw)

September, 1999: Spotlight on Optical Art

Op Art is the term everyone uses; however in its narrowest sense that refers to a specific artistic movement in the 1960's, and by that time two of the best-known 20th-century artists working with perception and optical illusion, M.C. Escher and Victor Vasarely, had been experimenting in this area for decades. The less common Optical Art is a more inclusive term.

Optical Art is a mathematically-oriented form of (usually) abstract art, which uses repetition of simple forms and colors to create vibrating effects, moiré patterns, an exaggerated sense of depth, foreground-background confusion, and other visual effects.

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. With Optical Art, the rules that the eye applies to makes sense of a visual image are themselves the "subject" of the artwork.

Escher, Vasarely, and Josef Albers were early experimenters with Optical Art. The Op Art group included Bridget Riley, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Kenneth Noland, and Lawrence Poons.

The featured artist for September is

M.C. Escher, the visionary graphic artist so well known for his stunning patterns and paradoxes.

The featured online exhibit is Trompe l'oeil: The Art of Deception, the online version of a travelling exhibit mounted by the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden. We haven't come across a really good online exhibit specifically pertaining to Optical Art, but this collection of still life and photorealist artwork is chock full of visual trickery. Click here for a brief review of the exhibit and to visit it.

The featured print from AllPosters.com is the wonderful Movement In Squares, by Bridget Riley, probably the best-known member of the Op Art movement.