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.
Vega - Kontosh Victor Vasarely Buy This Art Print At AllPosters.com 
Movement in Squares Bridget Riley Buy This Art Print At AllPosters.com 
Meditative Rose, 1958 Buy This Art Print At AllPosters.com 
Relativity Buy This Art Print At AllPosters.com |
Optical Art is generally characterized by hard-edged black and white patterns or geometric shapes which use repetition of simple forms and colors to create vibrating effects, moiré patterns, an exaggerated sense of depth, foreground-background confusion, impressions of movement, flashing and vibration, or alternatively of swelling or warping. Deriving from the abstract expressionist movement, op art includes paintings concerned with surface kinetics. Op art works are usually abstract, with many of the better known pieces made in only black and white. | Colors were used in creating visual effects, such as afterimages and trompe-l'oeil. Vibrating colors, concentric circles, and pulsating moiré patterns were characteristic of works by Victor Vasarely, Richard Anusziewicz, Bridget Riley, Ad Reinhardt, Kenneth Noland, and Larry Poons. It has been suggested that Victor Vasarely's 1930s works such as Zebra (1938), which is made up entirely of diagonal black and white stripes curved in a way to give a three-dimensional impression of a seated zebra, should be considered the first works of op art. |
Optical Illusions in ArtSalvador DaliFascinated with optical effects and visual perception, Salvador Dali created paintings of gripping intensity and astonishing variety. Dali used such pictorial techniques as distorted perspective, double images, and three-dimensional illusions, as well as photographs and holograms, to explore perception, perspective, and the ways that optical illusion affects our sense of reality. M. C.EscherEscher, M(aurits) C(ornelis) (1898-1972) was a Dutch graphic artist, who is most recognized for spatial illusions, impossible buildings, repeating geometric patterns (tessellations), and his incredible techniques in woodcutting and lithography. He is noted for his distinctive prints depicting intricate interlocking patterns and optical illusions. | Optical Illusions
Optical Illusions fool your mind into seeing a false reality. Identical lines appear to be different lengths, ghostly dark blobs appear where the screen or paper is white, black and white patterns appear to move when they can't, etc. They can be so convincing that you may have to check for yourself that there's no trickery involved. More:About, Ambiguous, Optical Art, Chimera, Distortion, Dynamic, Impossible, Moire, Motion, Unstable. |
