Martirez, Alexis

OPTICAL ART

Optical Art was an international art movement which came to prominence in the 1960s,
exploring the ways abstract pattern, colour and form can stimulate the eye.
When did it start. Op art works in a similar way. Artists use shapes, colours and patterns in
special ways to create images that look as if they are moving or blurring. Op art started in the
1960s and the painting above is by Bridget Riley who is one of the main op artists.
Characteristics & Style of Op Art Distorting the viewer’s perception of motion, depth and form
by emphasizing discordant figure- ground relationships, the most iconic examples of Op Art rely
on high-contrast black-and-white lines and patterns, composed with Mathematical precision.
Characterized by simple shapes, forms, and colors arranged to induce the illusion of movement,
op art (short for optical art) came into its own in 1965 with the debut of The Responsive Eye at
the Museum of Modern Art in New York City (MoMA). As the exhibition title suggests. The
Responsive Eve focused on viewers perceptual reactions to art rather than art as an objective
object.
“Unlike most previous abstract painting, these works exist less as objects to be examined than
as generators of perceptual responses, of colors and relationships existing solely in vision…” –
William Seitz, MoMA Curator of Painting and Sculpture. 1960-1970.
WHO INVENTED OP ART?
Although no one person inverted op art, critics and art historians often credit Josef Albers with
galvanizing the movement. Known today as one of the most influential artists and art educators
of the 20th century. Josef Albers showed no early signs of artistic genius. Although he did exhibit
his parents natural talent for craftsmanship from a young ago. Despite his knack for craft. Albers
didn’t enter the trades. At 20. He began what would become a lifelong coercer in education.
After five years of teaching in Bottrop, Westphalia. Germany. Albers moved to Berlin to study art
education, which would later snowball into a fruitful carder as an artist.color theorist, and
educator..
*For me, abstraction is real, probably more real than nature. I’ll go further and say that
abstraction is nearer my heart. I prefer to see with closed eyes.” – Josef Albers. 1888-1976.
Main idea of optical art?
Summary of Op Art 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

“To experience the presence of a work of art is more important than to

understand it.”