THE WORLD OF OP ART
THE WORLD OF OP ART
THE WORLD OF OP ART Edited by Ming lang Jiang
THE WORLD OF OP ART
CONTENTS PART 1 WHAT IS OP ART? Introduction Fashion Sculpture History
PART 2 WHY IS OP ART SO DIFFERENT? Element Color Function
PART 3 FAMOUS OP ART ARTISITS Victor Vasarely Bridget Louise Riley Jean-Pierre Vasarely
CONTENTS
Yellow Edged Pink Square, 1979, Acrylic on Canvas
THE WORLD OF OP ART
Sculpture, Plexiglas, Sarah Dubois, 2014
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WHAT IS OP ART
WHAT IS OP ART? Introduction Op art, also known as optical art, is a style of visual art that uses optical illusions. Op art works are abstract, with many better known pieces created in black and white. Typically, they give the viewer the impression of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibrating patterns, or of swelling or warping. The Op art movement was driven by artists who were interested in investigating various perceptual effects. Some did so out of sheer enthusiasm for research and experiment, some with the distant hope that the effects they mastered might find a wide public and hence integrate modern art into society in new ways. Rather like the geometric art from which it had sprung, Op art seemed to supply a style that was highly appropriate to modern society. Op art is the short form for the art movement known as optical art. Time magazine described Op art as “Pictures That Attack the Eye� in October 1964; consequently, the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan created an exhibition of Op art in 1965 that boasted 123 paintings and sculptures from 100 artists of 15 nations. The optical art movement has been especially common in American art since the1960s, but the style really traces back to the year 1839 and one French chemist, Michel-Eugene Chevreul. He studied the effect of pairing complimentary colors, and his influence spread importantly to the father of Op art, Georges Seurat, the inventor of pointillism 03
THE WORLD OF OP ART
Optical art is concerned with creating optical illusions. The style typically favors abstraction over representation because observers must really focus their eyes and comprehend what they see. An illusion might suggest one thing at first, but a closer look reveals something differ-
Fashion
ent in the picture. Many Op art pieces are completed in two colors—black and white. The optical illusion creates different responses in observers through patterns, flashes, contrasts, movement, and hidden imagery. The observer is pulled into the picture in the same way that he or she is attacked by the image. Philip Taaffe (b. 1955) was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and trained at Cooper Union in New York. He has studied and exhibited internationally, and his works appear in museums such as Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. Taaffe demonstrates the concepts of Op art in works like Eros and Psyche and Pine Columns. Eros and Psyche (1993-1994) is a vivid abstraction with bold colors of red, white, black, and orange. This painting reflects a similar style to some Abstract Expressionist works of Jackson Pollock.
The British artist, Bridget Riley, was born in 1931in London. Her art from the second half of the twentieth century offers many examples of optical illusion. One beautiful work is done in the traditional black and white—Movement in Squares (1961). In this piece, Riley shows that a simple geometric pattern of checkerboard squares when arranged in a compelling way can create motion and illusion. A colorful piece, Shadow Play (1990), uses many colors to create a geometric pattern that inspires strong emotions in the observer. For example, the use of bright and warm colors creates a happy feeling. Riley notably represented her country in the Venice Biennale (1968) and became the first British contemporary painter and female to garner the Biennale’s International Prize in painting.
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WHAT IS OP ART
Op Art Fashion by Courreges 1965
THE WORLD OF OP ART
George Clooney in W Magazine’s “The Artist Issue”,Emma Summerton
LONDON, United Kingdom — Fashion’s artist collabo-
The current issue of W magazine features an optical-
rations go back to the closely coupled creative worlds
ly-challenging image of George Clooney in a suit and
of Paul Poiret and Raoul Dufy, and Elsa Schiaparelli and
set customised by the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.
Salvador Dalí. But in the intervening years, much has
The actor’s salt and pepper hair is echoed in a flurry of
changed. There is a world of difference between those
uneven monochrome dots proliferating like a cartoon
early twentieth century collaborations — tiny couture
rash across every surface of the image – dots that seem
collections destined for wealthy bohemians — and their
to have become the most immediately recognisable
contemporary equivalents: multi-billion dollar luxury
shorthand for the concept ‘contemporary art’ in the
goods houses collaborating with blue-chip artists to
popular imagination. Clooney’s customised suit may be
translate their work into industrially manufactured and
Giorgio Armani, but to the rest of the world, Kusama’s
globally distributed products.
infinite rippling polka dots are associated with another brand entirely; one which, in 2012, was largely responsible for the artist’s promotion from art world prominence to pop cultural ubiquity: Louis Vuitton.
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WHAT IS OP ART
One of Marc Jacobs and Yves Carcelle’s most significant achievements at Louis Vuitton was the introduction of major artist collaborations into the brand’s DNA, helping (along with Jacobs’ fashion collections and overall sense of showmanship) to transform what was a staid
But working with artists requires a delicate touch, espe-
French luggage label, whose signature monogram was
cially when they are less established. “When there’s too
increasingly associated with cheap knock-offs, into one
much marketing and emphasis on product, the artist can
of the most valuable fashion brands in the world.
suffer,” explains Mikaeloff. “We have to be careful, par-
Jacobs’ first artistic collaborations for Vuitton were with
ticularly with a young artist, that it doesn’t affect their
the New York-based fashion designer Stephen Sprouse
career. It has happened that there has been a collabo-
(responsible for the monogram’s graffiti makeover,
ration and you take a look at the artist afterwards and
which appeared on everything from leather goods to
realise that suddenly they’re not getting so many gallery
scarves to sneakers) and the London-based designer
shows. You have to find a way to work with artists that is
and illustrator Julie Verhoeven: both creative individuals
not going to compete with the art market.”
already firmly connected to the fashion world.
It is notable that of the artists who have recently given
But in 2003, Jacobs and Vuitton launched a far more
Louis Vuitton a burst of energy, Richard Prince is 64,
ambitious product collaboration with the artist Takashi
Daniel Buren is 75 and Kusama is 84; none have any-
Murakami. Then aged 40, the Japanese artist had
thing left to prove to the art world in terms of intent or
already been the subject of prominent solo exhibitions
integrity. “Kusama was already a highly respected artist
on three continents. Known for his determined manipu-
in art world circles with a major retrospective underway
lation of cultural boundaries — between high and low,
at four of the world’s most important art museums,”
ancient and modern, Orient and Occident — Muraka-
explains Scott Wright. “What this collaboration did was
mi’s fresh, youthful, pop-inflected reworkings of the
make her into an international household name.”
monogram, which continued until 2007, and helped to
Fashion may often be accused of dining on the juice
cement Vuitton’s new image.
of youth, but, certainly, one key to mutually beneficial
A collaboration the following year with the American
collaborations with artists seems to be a taste for rather
appropriation artist Richard Prince was launched with
more mature talents.
a runway show in which bags bearing Prince’s irreverent takes on the monogram were presented by sexy nurses, inspired by the artist’s Nurse paintings. Jacobs has also recently worked on a runway show and window designs with the French conceptual artist Daniel Buren.
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The Fashion Revolution of the 1960s Not since the 1920s had the way people dressed changed so radically. In the mid 1960s, thanks to a convergence of music, film, fashion and social change, the mod look blasted out of London, with the boutiques of Kings Road and Carnaby Street at the epicentre of the scene. For the first time in history young people had other options than to dress like their parents. Up until then clothes for young women were known as Juniors or Misses – a watered down version of adult clothes. The sixties changed all that when young people started making the clothes they wanted to wear, clothes that completely excluded their parents’ generation. The mod look was about looking forward to the future: sharp, bold, minimalist – modernist. Mary Quant said of this time in her biography that she wanted ‘young people to have a fashion of their own, absolutely 20th century fashion’. The monochrome geometric prints of Op Art perfectly complemented the bold shapes of the mod look, which
Op Art Fashion 1960s Mod girl and op art
are perfectly parodied in William Klein’s 1966 film Qui etes-vous Polly Maggoo? The sharp five point Vidal Sassoon haircut and the simple A line shift dresses by Andre Courreges and Pierre Cardin soon entered the mass market, having been quickly copied and mass reproduced thanks to the new large scale availability of synthetic fabrics.
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WHAT IS OP ART
Op Art Exploitation? Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely had polar opposite views on the commercialisation of their work. While Vasarely thought that art should be for everyone and even collaborated with textile firms, Riley was dismayed at seeing her original work co-opted for commercial use without her permission. In February 1965, Riley was being driven from the airport to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Travelling up Madison Avenue she saw in the shop windows row upon row of dresses with designs lifted from her paintings. Riley denounced the way her art was being “vulgarized in the rag trade” and publicly expressed her ‘deep anger’ at the commercialisation of one of her paintings by a New York dress firm. The firm was producing dresses with a design based on one of her paintings which was owned by the director of the firm. She tried to sue for copyright infringement but was unsuccessful.
Enri Mur Richard Ramos Vanidad
Op Art not Pop Art Although Pop Art was a separate movement, it is often confused or combined with Op Art when discussing sixties fashion. Pop Art also had a huge influence on fashion during the mid 1960s with the graphic work of Pop artists such as Andy Warhol being printed onto clothing. The most iconic example of art meeting fashion in the 1960s is Yves Saint Laurent’s Mondrian shift dress. It was featured on the cover of French Vogue in September 1965; cheaper mass market copies inevitably followed. Also not to be confused with Op Art: geometric styles were usually made up of panels of fabric in boldly contrasting colours such as black and white or bright primary colours juxtaposed. Op Art was all about the print.
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Sculpture The Op art movement was driven by artists who were interested in investigating various perceptual effects. Some did so out of sheer enthusiasm for research and experiment, some with the distant hope that the effects they mastered might find a wide public and hence integrate modern art into society in new ways. Rather like the geometric art from which it had sprung, Op art seemed to supply a style that was highly appropriate to modern society. Although Op can be seen as the successor to geometric abstraction, its stress on illusion and perception suggests that it might also have older ancestors. It may descend from effects that were once popular with Old Masters, such as trompe l’oeil (French: “deceive the eye�). Or indeed from anamorphosis, the effect by which images are contorted so that objects are only fully recognizable when viewed from an oblique angle. Or, equally, Op may simply be a child of modern decoration. During its years of greatest success in the mid-1960s, the movement was sometimes said to encompass a wide range of artists whose interests in abstraction had little to do with perception. Some, such as Joseph Albers, who were often labeled as Op artists, dismissed it. Yet the fact that the label could seem to apply to so many artists demonstrates how important the nuances of vision have been throughout modern art.
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WHAT IS OP ART
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THE WORLD OF OP ART
The Op art movement was driven by artists who were interested in investigating various perceptual effects. Some did so out of sheer enthusiasm for research and experiment, some with the distant hope that the effects they mastered might find a wide public and hence integrate modern art into society in new ways. Rather like the geometric art from which it had sprung, Op art seemed to supply a style that was highly appropriate to modern society.
Farb-Licht-Zentrum, ZHdK
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WHAT IS OP ART
Although Op can be seen as the successor to geometric abstraction, its stress on illusion and perception suggests that it might also have older ancestors. It may descend from effects that were once popular with Old Masters, such as trompe l’oeil (French: “deceive the eye”). Or indeed from anamorphosis, the effect by which images are contorted so that objects are only fully recognizable when viewed from an oblique angle. Or, equally, Op may simply be a child of modern decoration.
Op Art by Bridget Riley
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THE WORLD OF OP ART
OP ART ‘’ METAL WALL SCULPTURE BY FONCHEN LORD at 1stdibs
WHAT IS OP ART
During its years of greatest success in the mid-1960s, the movement was sometimes said to encompass a wide range of artists whose interests in abstraction had little to do with perception. Some, such as Joseph Albers, who were often labeled as Op artists, dismissed it. Yet the fact that the label could seem to apply to so many artists demonstrates how important the nuances of vision have been throughout modern art.
THE WORLD OF OP ART
Pattern, Line, Optical Illusion and ‘Movement’ In some respects, Op Art can be thought of as a development from Kinetic Art. The question posed was how to provide the viewer with an illusion of movement on a static 2D surface. Exploitation of the fallibility of the eye through the use of optical illusion provided Op Artists with the answer. The use of repetition of pattern and line, often in high contrast black and white was one way Op Artists used to create this illusion of movement. The overall optical effect of the technique leads the viewer to see flashing and vibration, or alternatively swelling or warping.
Victor Vasarely Op Art Sculpture France 1970s
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WHAT IS OP ART
Victor Vasarely Op Art Sculpture 6
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History Origins – Bahaus – Geometric Form Founded in Germany in 1919 by Walter Gropius the Bauhaus school brought together artists, architects, and designers in an extraordinary conversation about the nature of art in the age of technology. This was a school of Architecture and Applied Arts, its disciplined style based on the fundamental geometric shapes of the cube, the rectangle and the circle. The revolutionary Bahaus teaching method replaced the traditional pupil-teacher relationship with the idea of a community of artists working together. Despite being shut down by the Nazis in 1933, Bahaus lived on with other schools starting in the US and Budapest. Its influence on European and American art was immense and it was certainly one of the strongest influences on Op Art. Victor Vasarely, the ‘father’ of Op Art trained in the Budapest Bahaus school.
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WHAT IS OP ART
Walter Gropius, Bauhaus Master Houses in Dessau.1925-1926
Poster for Bahaus Exhibition Weimar, Germany 1923
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WHAT IS OP ART
Jean Tinguely, Le Cyclograveur, 1959
THE WORLD OF OP ART
Op-Art of Vasarely
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WHAT IS OP ART
Origins – Kinetic Art – Movement Starting in 1913 with Duchamp’s ‘Bicycle wheel’ and popularised in Russia in the 1920s by artists such as Naum Gabo, Kinetic Art concerned itself with the creation of real or illusory movement. Approaches to the discipline were diverse. Sculptors such as Jean Tinguely used all sorts of materials, sometimes collecing scrap to construct moving sculptures. For instance, ‘Cyclograveur’ (shown right) invited the viewer to climb on the saddle and pedal to make it move. Another scuplptor, Alexander Calder, eliminated the conventional pedestal and hung his constructions from the ceiling on long rods, so they became known as mobiles. Kinetic Art primarily took the form of sculpture and was at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, with artists such as Calder and George Rickey leading the way. Clearly sculpture lent itself to movement; the question was how to create movement on a 2D surface.
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Victor Vasarely - Lessons - TES
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WHAT IS OP ART
Victor Vasarely Cube Sculpture
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WHY IS OP ART SO DIFFERENT? Element Artists have been intrigued by the nature of perception and by optical effects and illusions for many centuries. They have often been a central concern of art, just as much as themes drawn from history or literature. But in the 1950s these preoccupations, allied to new interests in technology and psychology, blossomed into a movement. Op, or Optical, art typically employs abstract patterns composed with a stark contrast of foreground and background - often in black and white for maximum contrast - to produce effects that confuse and excite the eye. Initially, Op shared the field with Kinetic art - Op artists being drawn to virtual movement, Kinetic artists attracted by the possibility of real motion. Both styles were launched with Le Mouvement, a group exhibition at Galerie Denise Rene in 1955. It attracted a wide international following, and after it was celebrated with a survey exhibition in 1965, The Responsive Eye, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, it caught the public’s imagination and led to a craze for Op designs in fashion and the media. To many, it seemed the perfect style for an age defined by the onward march of science, by advances in computing, aerospace, and television. But art critics were never so supportive of it, attacking its effects as gimmicks, and today it remains tainted by those dismissals.
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WHY IS OP ART SO DIFFERENT
Victor Vasarely Zebras white on black
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WHY IS OP ART SO DIFFERENT
Traditional Perspective and ‘Depth’
Starting in 1913 with Duchamp’s ‘Bicycle wheel’ and popularised in Russia in the 1920s by artists such as Naum Gabo, Kinetic Art concerned itself with the creation of real or illusory movement. Approaches to the discipline were diverse. Sculptors such as Jean Tinguely used all sorts of materials, sometimes collecing scrap to construct moving sculptures. For instance, ‘Cyclograveur’ (shown right) invited the viewer to climb on the saddle and pedal to make it move. Another scuplptor, Alexander Calder, eliminated the conventional pedestal and hung his constructions from the ceiling on long rods, so they became known as mobiles. Kinetic Art primarily took the form of sculpture and was at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, with artists such as Calder and George Rickey leading the way. Clearly sculpture lent itself to movement; the question was how to create movement on a 2D surface.
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THE WORLD OF OP ART
Color Theory and the Science of Color With Op Art came an acute awareness of the work done on the science of colour and colour theory. Colours appear to change depending on their proximity to other colours. For example, a red shape on a white ground appears much lighter than the same red shape on a black ground. Colours opposite each other on the colour wheel when placed next to each other seem to be of different intensity than when placed some distance apart. Those colours in the cool range – blues, purples & greens – are recessive and seem to sink back on the surface whilst the warm colours – red, orange and yellow particularly – are ’emergent’. The manipulation of colours to achieve apparent movement is endless – some colours placed next to neutral greys appear to create new colours – an echo of a colour, an after image, and so on. The color relationships in play are known as simultaneous contrast, successive contrast, and reverse contrast (or assimilation).
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WHY IS OP ART SO DIFFERENT
Color
Gene Davis Firebox 1964
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Optical illusion - azul
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WHY IS OP ART SO DIFFERENT
Simultaneous Contrast Two colors, side by side, interact with one another and change our perception accordingly. The effect of this interaction is called simultaneous contrast. Since we rarely see colors in isolation, simultaneous contrast affects our sense of the color that we see. For example, red and blue flowerbeds in a garden are modified where they border each other: the blue appears green and the red, orange. (This is explained below.) The real colors are not altered; only our perception of them changes. This effect has a simple scientific explanation that we will uncover.
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Simultaneous contrast is most intense when the two colors are complementary colors. Complementary colors are pairs of colors, diametrically opposite on a color circle: as seen in Newton’s color circle, red and green, and blue and yellow. Yellow complements blue; mixed yellow and blue lights generate white light. Impressionist interest in color and light is influenced in part by the research of scientists like Michel Chevreul. Specifically, the idea that an object of any given color will cast a shadow tinged with that of its complementary color and tinting neighboring colors in the same manner influences Impressionists. This theory was already known to earlier painters, such as Eugène Delacroix. A primary color such as red has green (the combination of the other two primaries) as its complementary. Similarly, blue has orange and yellow has purple as a complementary color. Simultaneous contrast in sight is readily understood. Consider an intense beam of blue light, surrounded by white light, striking our retinas. Where the blue light strikes, the blue cones will be stimulated, overloaded and fatigued. The horizontal cells that link the blue cones will cause blue cones, outside of but close to the blue beam, to also become fatigued. In the surround of the blue beam where the white light falls, the blue receptors will be fatigued and the white light will appear to our brain as yellow. (Recall that blue light plus yellow light equals white light.) Simultaneous contrast causes the white around the blue to seem yellow. Similarly, white light around a yellow beam will seem blue. Such effects are simple to demonstrate with a light beam and some colored filters. Finally, for blue alongside yellow, the blue makes the yellow more yellow and the yellow makes the blue more blue. Simultaneous contrast has its greatest effect for adjacent complementary colors.
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WHY IS OP ART SO DIFFERENT
Tony Digital Art & Design
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Function The phrase ‘Op Art’ was coined around the time of the famous ‘Responsive Eye’ exhibition, with ‘Op’ of course referring to optics – the physical and psychological process of vision. Work on the mathematical and scientific basis of perception had been ongoing since the 1800s, with much progress having been made in the 1950s and 1960s leading to a resurgence of interest in the field. The Op Artists, through their study of the science behind how the eye and brain work together to perceive color, light, depth, perspective, size, shape, and motion, were able to put into practice the scientific work around visual perception. Op Art exploits the functional relationship between the eye’s retina (the organ that ‘sees’ patterns) and the brain (the organ that interprets patterns). Certain visual stimuli can cause confusion between these two organs, resulting in the perception of irrational optical phenomena, something the Op Artists used to full effect.
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WHY IS OP ART SO DIFFERENT
The Hermann Grid (1870s) Ludimar Hermann
Optical Illusions: A Gallery of Visual Tricks
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WHY IS OP ART SO DIFFERENT
Photo by Marta Cerdà on Behance
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Op Art and The Science of Perception Scientists did not invent the vast majority of visual illusions. Rather they are the products of artists who have used their insights into the workings of the human eyes and brain to create illusions in their artwork. Long before visual science existed as a formal discipline, artists had devised techniques to “trick” the brain into thinking that a flat canvas was three-dimensional or that a series of brushstrokes in a still life was in fact a bowl of luscious fruit. Thus, the visual arts have sometimes preceded the visual sciences in the discovery of fundamental vision principles through the application of methodical—though perhaps more intuitive—research techniques. In this sense, art, illusions and visual science have always been implicitly linked. It was only with the birth of the op art (for “optical art”) movement that visual illusions became a recognized art form. The movement arose simultaneously in Europe and the U.S. in the 1960s, and in 1964 Time magazine coined the term “op art.” Op art works are abstract, and many consist only of black-and-white lines and patterns. Others use the interaction of contrasting colors to create a sense of depth or movement.
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THE WORLD OF OP ART
via iindex March 30, 2013
Op Art 1 by Vinnie14
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WHY IS OP ART SO DIFFERENT
This style became hugely popular after the Museum of Modern Art in New York City held an exhibition in 1965 called “The Responsive Eye.” In it, op artists explored many aspects of visual perception, such as the relations among geometric shapes, variations on “impossible” figures that could not occur in reality, and illusions involving brightness, color and shape perception. But “kinetic,” or motion, illusions drew particular interest. In these eye tricks, stationary patterns give rise to the powerful but subjective perception of (illusory) motion. This article includes several works of art in which objects that are perfectly still appear to move. Moreover, they demonstrate that research in the visual arts can result in important findings about the visual system. Victor Vasarely, the Hungarian-French founder of the op art movement, once said, “In basic research, intellectual rigor and sentimental freedom necessarily alternate.” Op artists have created some of the illusions featured here; vision scientists honoring the op art tradition have created others. But all of them make it obvious that in op art, the link between art and illusory perception is an artistic style in and of itself.
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Victor Vasarely, Okta, 1985
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FAMOUS OP ART ARTISITS
FAMOUS OP ART ARTISITS Victor Vasarely Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian-French artist credited with having created the Op Art movement, which Bridget Riley and Yaacov Agam would come to follow. Vasarely’s paintings and sculpture utilized geometrical shapes and colorful graphics to create illusions of spatial depth on two-dimensional surfaces. This abstract method of painting, also known as Kineticism, borrowed from a diverse range of influences, including Bauhaus principles, Wassily Kandinsky’s abstraction, and the Constructivist movement, which had a particularly significant impact on Vasarely’s practice. Born Vásárhelyi Gyozo on April 9, 1906 in Pécs, Hungary, the artist originally studied medicine, but switched to painting after two years. Vasarely enrolled in the Hungarian branch of the Bauhaus (Muhely) in Budapest in the late 1920s. After settling in Paris in 1930, Vasarely worked as a graphic artist and developed his signature abstract aesthetic. He lived and worked in the city until his death at the age of 90 on March 15, 1997.
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Victor Vasarely, Phoenix Constellation, 1987
Victor Vasarely, Andromeda, 1978
FAMOUS OP ART ARTISITS
Every form is a base for colour, every colour is the attribute of a form. -Victor Vasarely
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Life and work Vasarely was born in Pécs and grew up in Pöstyén (now Piešťany, Slovakia) and Budapest, where in 1925 he took up medical studies at Eötvös Loránd University. In 1927, he abandoned medicine to learn traditional academic painting at the private Podolini-Volkmann Academy. In 1928/1929, he enrolled at Sándor Bortnyik’s private art school called Műhely (lit. “Workshop”, in existence until 1938), then widely recognized as Budapest’s centre of Bauhaus studies. Cash-strapped, the műhely could not offer all that the Bauhaus offered. Instead it concentrated on applied graphic art and typographical design. In 1929 he painted his Blue Study and Green Study. In 1930, he married his fellow student Claire Spinner (1908–1990). Together they had two sons, Andre and Jean-Pierre. In Budapest, he worked for a ball-bearings company in accounting and designing advertising posters. Vasarely became a graphic designer and a poster artist during the 1930s combining patterns and organic images with each other.
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FAMOUS OP ART ARTISITS
Victor Vasarely, Kroa A, ca. 1968
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Vasarely left Hungary and settled in Paris in 1930. He worked as a graphic artist and as a creative consultant at the advertising agencies Havas, Draeger and Devambez (1930–1935). His interactions with other artists during this time were limited. He thought of opening an institution modeled after Sándor Bortnyik’s műhely and developed some teaching material for it. Having lived mostly in cheap hotels, he settled in 1942/1944 in Saint-Céré in the Lot département. After the Second World War, he opened an atelier in Arcueil, a suburb about 10 kilometers from the centre of Paris (in the Val-de-Marne département of the Île-de-France). In 1961, he finally settled in Annet-surMarne (in the Seine-et-Marne département). Vasarely eventually went on to produce art and sculpture using optical illusion. Over the next three decades, Vasarely developed his style of geometric abstract art, working in various materials but using a minimal number of forms and colours.
1929-1944: Early graphics: Vasarely experimented with textural effects, perspective, shadow and light. His early graphic period resulted in works such as Zebras (1937), Chess Board (1935), and Girl-power (1934). 1944-1947: Les Fausses Routes - On the wrong track: During this period, Vasarely experimented with cubistic, futuristic, expressionistic, symbolistic and surrealistic paintings without developing a unique style. Afterwards, he said he was on the wrong track. He exhibited his works in the gallery of Denise René (1946) and the gallery René Breteau (1947). Writing the introduction to the catalogue, Jacques Prévert placed Vasarely among the surrealists. Prévert creates the term imaginoires (images + noir, black) to describe the paintings. Self Portrait (1941) and The Blind Man (1946) are associated with this period.
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FAMOUS OP ART ARTISITS
Victor Vasarely - 1995
THE WORLD OF OP ART
THE WORLD OF OP ART
Fondation Victor Vasarely à Aix-en-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, PACA
1947-1951: Developing geometric abstract art (optical
1951-1955: Kinetic images, black-white photographies:
art): Finally, Vasarely found his own style. The overlap-
From his Gordes works he developed his kinematic im-
ping developments are named after their geographical
ages, superimposed acrylic glass panes create dynamic,
heritage. Denfert refers to the works influenced by the
moving impressions depending on the viewpoint. In the
white tiled walls of the Paris Denfert - Rochereau metro
black-white period he combined the frames into a single
station. Ellipsoid pebbles and shells found during a
pane by transposing photographies in two colours. Trib-
vacation in 1947 at the Breton coast at Belle Île inspired
ute to Malevitch, a ceramic wall picture of 100 m² adorns
him to the Belles-Isles works. Since 1948, Vasarely usu-
the University of Caracas, Venezuela which he co-de-
ally spent his summer months in Gordes in Provence-
signed in 1954 with the architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva,
Alpes-Côte d’Azur. There, the cubic houses led him to
is a major work of this period.
the composition of the group of works labelled Gordes /Cristal. He worked on the problem of empty and filled spaces on a flat surface as well as the stereoscopic view.
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FAMOUS OP ART ARTISITS
Kinetic art flourished and works by Vasarely, Calder, Duchamp, Man Ray, Soto, Tinguely were exhibited at the Denise René gallery under the title Le Mouvement (the motion). Vasarely published his Yellow Manifest. Building on the research of constructivist and Bauhaus pioneers,
On 5 June 1970, Vasarely opened his first dedicated
he postulated that visual kinetics (plastique cinétique)
museum with over 500 works in a renaissance palace in
relied on the perception of the viewer who is considered
Gordes (closed in 1996). A second major undertaking
the sole creator, playing with optical illusions.
was the Foundation Vasarely in Aix-en-Provence, a muse-
1955-1965: Folklore planétaire, permutations and serial
um housed in a distinct structure specially designed by
art: On 2 March 1959, Vasarely patented his method of
Vasarely. It was inaugurated in 1976 by French president
unités plastiques. Permutations of geometric forms are
Georges Pompidou. Sadly the museum is now in a state
cut out of a coloured square and rearranged. He worked
of disrepair, several of the pieces on display have been
with a strictly defined palette of colours and forms
damaged by water leaking from the ceiling. Also, in 1976
(three reds, three greens, three blues, two violets, two
his large kinematic object Georges Pompidou was in-
yellows, black, white, gray; three circles, two squares,
stalled in the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Vasarely
two rhomboids, two long rectangles, one triangle, two
Museum located at his birthplace in Pécs, Hungary, was
dissected circles, six ellipses) which he later enlarged
established with a large donation of works by Vasarely.
and numbered. Out of this plastic alphabet, he started
In the same decade, he took a stab at industrial design
serial art, an endless permutation of forms and colours
with a 500-piece run of the upscale Suomi tableware by
worked out by his assistants. (The creative process is
Timo Sarpaneva that Vasarely decorated for the German
produced by standardized tools and impersonal actors
Rosenthal porcelain maker’s Studio Linie. In 1982 154
which questions the uniqueness of a work of art.) In
specially created serigraphs were taken into space by the
1963, Vasarely presented his palette to the public under
cosmonaut Jean-Loup Chrétien on board the French-So-
the name of Folklore planetaire.
viet spacecraft Salyut 7 and later sold for the benefit of UNESCO. In 1987, the second Hungarian Vasarely
1965-: Hommage à l’hexagone, Vega: The Tribute to the
museum was established in Zichy Palace in Budapest
hexagon series consists of endless transformations of
with more than 400 works. He died age 90 in Paris on 15
indentations and relief adding color variations, creating
March 1997. A new Vasarely exhibit was mounted in Paris
a perpetual mobile of optical illusion. In 1965 Vasarely
at Musee en Herbe in 2012.
was included in the Museum of Modern Art exhibition The Responsive Eye, created under the direction of William C. Seitz. His Vega series plays with spherical swelling grids creating an optical illusion of volume. In October 1967, designer Will Burtin invited Vasarely to make a presentation to Burtin’s Vision ’67 conference, held at New York University.
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Awards -1964: Guggenheim Prize -1970: French Chevalier de L’Ordre de la Légion d’honneur
-Art Critics Prize, Brussels -Gold Medal at the Milan Triennale
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Early life and education Riley was born in London in 1931. Her father, John Fisher Riley, originally from Yorkshire, was a printer. Her grandfather was an officer in the Army. In 1938 he relocated the printing business, together with his family, to Lincolnshire At the beginning of World War II Riley’s father was mobilized from the Honourable Artillery Company and sent to the Far East. Bridget Riley, together with her mother and sister Sally, moved to a cottage in Cornwall. The cottage, not far from the sea near Padstow, was shared with an aunt who was a former student at Goldsmiths’ College, London. Primary education came in the form of irregular talks and lectures by non-qualified or retired teachers. She attended Cheltenham Ladies’ College and then studied art at Goldsmiths College (1949–52), and later at the Royal College of Art (1952–55).[6] There her fellow students included artists Peter Blake, Geoffrey Harcourt (the retired painter, also noted for his many well known chair designs) and Frank Auerbach. In 1955 Riley graduated with a BA degree. Between 1956 and 1958 she nursed her father, who had
Bridget Louise Riley
been involved in a serious car crash, and herself suffered a breakdown. After this she worked in a glassware shop and also, for a while, taught children. She eventually joined the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, as an illustrator, where she worked part-time until 1962. The large Whitechapel Gallery exhibition of Jackson Pollock, in the winter of 1958, was to have a major impact on her.
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Bridget Riley Her early work was figurative with a semi-impressionist style. Between 1958 and 1959 her work at the advertising agency showed her adoption of a style of painting based on the pointillist technique. Around 1960 she began to develop her signature Op Art style consisting of black and white geometric patterns that explore the dynamism of sight and produce a disorienting effect on the eye. In the summer of 1960 she toured Italy with mentor Maurice de Sausmarez, and the two visited the Venice Biennale with its large exhibition of Futurist works.
Early in her career, Riley worked as an art teacher from Bridget Rley by Ida Kar
1957-58 at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Harrow (now known as Sacred Heart Language College). Later she worked at the Loughborough School of Art (1959), Hornsey College of Art, and Croydon College of Art (1962–64). In 1961, with partner Peter Sedgley, she visited the Vaucluse plateau in the South of France, and acquired a derelict farm which would eventually be transformed into a studio. Back in London, in the spring of 1962, Riley was given her first solo exhibition, by Victor Musgrave of Studio One. In 1968 Riley, with Peter Sedgley and the journalist Peter Townsend, created the artists’ organization SPACE (Space Provision Artistic Cultural and Educational), with the goal of providing artists large and affordable studio space.
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La pionnière britannique de l’Op’art
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Bridget Riley, Hesitate, 1964
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Bridget Riley, C, 1968
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For me nature is not landscape, but the dynamism of visual forces. -Bridget Riley
Cataract 3, 1967, PVA on canvas
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Work Riley’s mature style, developed during the 1960s, was
Visually, these works relate to many concerns of the
influenced by a number of sources. It was during this
period: a perceived need for audience participation (this
time that Riley began to paint the black and white
relates them to the Happenings, for which the period is
works for which she is best known. They present a great
famous), challenges to the notion of the mind-body duality
variety of geometric forms that produce sensations of
which led Aldous Huxley to experiment with hallucino-
movement or colour. In the early 1960s, her works were
genic drugs; concerns with a tension between a scientific
said to induce sensation in viewers as varied as seasick
future which might be very beneficial or might lead to a
and sky diving. From 1961 to 1964 she worked with the
nuclear war; and fears about the loss of genuine individual
contrast of black and white, occasionally introducing
experience in a Brave New World. Her paintings have,
tonal scales of grey. Works in this style comprised her
since 1961, been executed by assistants from her own
first 1962 solo show at Musgrave’s Gallery One, as well
endlessly edited studies.
as numerous subsequent shows. For example, in Fall,
Riley began investigating colour in 1967, the year in which
a single perpendiculars curve is repeated to create a
she produced her first stripe painting. Following a major
field of varying optical frequencies.
retrospective in the early 1970s, Riley began travelling extensively. After a trip to Egypt in the early 1980s, where she was inspired by colourful hieroglyphic decoration, Riley began to explore colour and contrast.In some works, lines of colour are used to create a shimmering effect, while in others the canvas is filled with tessellating patterns. Typical of these later colourful works is Shadow Play.
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Public collections -Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam -Museum of Fine Arts, Boston -Museum of Modern Art, New York -Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City
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Jean-Pierre Vasarely Yvaral, Salvador Dali, Serigraph
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Jean-Pierre Vasarely Yvaral, son of Victor Vasarely, was a French artist known for his contributions to optical art, kinetic art, and numerical art. His works feature bold colors, impressions of movement, and vibrating patterns. He employed algorithms and computer programming to manipulate a number of his works, including his series of portraits depicting famous figures such as Marilyn Monroe. Aside from acrylic painting, Yvaral delved into various other mediums such as sculpture, tapestry, mixed media, and the collage.
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Life and work Yvaral studied graphic art and publicity at the École des Arts Appliqués in Paris between 1950 and 1953. In 1960, Yvaral co-founded the Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visual (GRAV) with Julio Le Parc, François Morellet, Francisco Sobrino, Horacio Garcia Rossi and Joel Stein, seeking to develop a coherent abstract visual language composed of simple geometric elements. In 1975 he coined the phrase ‘Numerical Art’ to describe artwork composed (or programmed) according to numerical rules or algorithms. From this time onwards he used computers to digitally process and manipulate images, although the final images were always hand painted. He used this technique to produce several series of portraits starting from instantly recognisable images, such as the face of Marilyn Monroe, and processing them to the point where they become abstract compositions, while the original image remains recognisable.
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Horizon Jaune Structure (Horizon Yellow Structure), c. 1975
Structure Cubique B, 1973
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Jean Pierre Vasarely Yvaral, Interference C
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Portrait du peintre Jean-Pierre Vasarely dit Yvaral, circa 1970. - Photographs of Celebrities
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Yvaral studied graphic art and publicity at the Ecole des Arts Appliqu (School of Applied Art) in Paris. There, he began experimenting with geometrical abstract art and made his first completed works with the movement in 1955. In 1960 he co–founded Le Group de Recherche d’Art Visuel with Le Parc, Morellet, Sobrino with which he exhibited throughout the world until 1968. Yvaral held his first one-man exhibition at the Howard Wise Gallery, New York in 1966. By the end of the 1960s he was making many paintings and screenprints with vigorous colour interactions and geometrical compositions. His work focussed on producing optical acceleration effects that suggested movement, projection and recession. He aimed to create a visual language based on simple codifiable and programmed elements. Through his search for a concise geometric digital vocabulary, he addressed our notions of space and time through the displacement of the spectator.
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Solo Exhibits -Op-Art Gallery - Esslingen, Germany -Howard Wise Gallery - New York -Ricke Gallery - Kassel, Germany -Tobies and Silex Gallery - Cologne -Hagen Museum - Germany -Hotel de Ville de Paris - Retrospective -F.I.A.C. Grand Palais - Paris -Pavillon des Arts - Paris -Circle Gallery - New York - Los Angeles
- San Francisco - Chicago - Houston - Dallas -Mitsukoski Museum - Tokyo -Redfern Gallery - London -Denise Rene Gallery - Paris -Semika Huber Gallery - Zurich -�Artec 90� - Nagoya, Japan - Selected to represent France
-Govaerts Gallery - Brussels -Fine Arts Museum - Caracas
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