51. Optical Art

July 10, 2022

51. Optical Art

Current, by Bridget Riley, 1964

“I can never keep my mind on Op Art. It always reminds me of The Continental Op, Dashiell Hammett's detective. That makes me think of The Maltese Falcon, which makes me think of Humphrey Bogart, which reminds me of, “Play it Again, Sam.” That reminds me of Woody Allen, and the next thing I know, I'm thinking about Diane Keaton. I don't know if anyone else has a similar experience with Op Art.”

– Brad Holland

What was it about? What were the goals?

Op (short for optical) Art works are non-objective (abstract, with no realistic representation), with many better-known pieces created in black and white. Op Art exploits strange little idiosyncrasies of the human eye to create illusions. This includes:

Simultaneous contrast, where placing two colors/values together tricks the eye into exaggerating the difference in value.

Note how A looks darker than B, when they’re, in fact, the same value.

Successive contrast, where you stare at one color long enough to tire your retinas (count to 20), then you look away (to the right) and see an after-image, a glowing shape, opposite in color to the original:

Intrinsic Harmony, by Richard Anuszkiewicz, 1965

Reverse contrast, where a pattern suggests that areas of either light or dark are bleeding into other objects:

Typically, these tricks give the viewer the impression of movement, hidden images, after-images, line-interference, flashing, dazzling, and vibrating patterns, moiré effects, or of swelling or warping. Some historians see it as a movement that grew out of Constructivism, while others see it as an abstract form of Pop Art.

Other characteristics of Op Art:

1. Anamorphosis: this is when you skew or distort an artwork so that it’s only readable or meant to be seen from one angle, or using a specific mirror.

The Ambassadors, by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1533

Note the strange shape in the lower foreground is actually a skull. When viewed from the side, it comes into proportion:

Here's another examples of anamorphosis:

from the Museum of the 3rd Dimension in Dinkelsbühl, Germany

2. Some Op Art is kinetic, in this case meaning they appear to move even though they don't:

Hatpin Urchin, by Akiyoshi Kitoaka, 2008

3. Some Op Art uses reflective materials, like aluminum, so that its reflections change as you walk around it.

4. While many Op Art paintings are black-and-white, some make use of contrasting and complimentary colors.

A bit of historical context:

Op Art is a neglected movement. Khan Academy’s art history course skips it entirely. Time Magazine coined the term op art in 1964, in response to Julian Stanczak's show Optical Paintings at the Martha Jackson Gallery, and the term has grown to include art made before and after. Its roots come from a variety of traditions, but especially Constructivism as taught at the German Bauhaus School. When it was disbanded by the Nazis in 1933, many of their professors fled to the US, where they continued teaching. Jozef Albers and Julian Stanczak disliked the term op art, preferring to call their work perceptual art.

Several artists and architectural groups described Op Art during the 1960’s, in artist statements and manifestos. In 1965, New York’s Museum of Modern Art began an Op Art travelling exhibition, titled The Responsive Eye, that toured across America, helping artists gain more fame. Critics panned it for being gimmicky decoration. They also said the artists were far too different to be labelled together. But, the public loved it––more than 180,000 people paid to see the work. Basically, it made a splash in the art world, where it was seen as a fashionable trend, appealing to people’s interest in sci-fi and technology. It’s now considered a museum footnote. Much of the style found better use in illustrating books and t-shirts.

It’s worth noting, M.C. Escher was producing art a full forty years before all this, but he’s not crediting with helping found the movement, partly because his work is representational and partly because he explored tricks of perspective and shape more than optics. Most encyclopaedias don’t even list him as an inspiration, which is silly. Escher became popular in the 60’s at the same time as Op Art, not because of museums––the art world ignored him till he was seventy––but due to an article in Scientific American.

The underlying philosophy of the period:

To a great extent, op art was fueled by artists’ desires to research and experiment on how the human eye functions. You can see it as a merger between art and science. While there was never a full-fledged philosophy to the movement, it confronted viewers with the physical limits of our perception, to show that our vision is fallible, and, thereby, we may not see the world as it really is. We gain a lesson in humility as we struggle to read and make sense of their work.

How was it represented in the other arts – music, architecture, and literature?

Op Art was popular in fashion, with many designs used in fabrics and clothing. In fact, Bridget Riley once sued a company for using her designs without paying her. She referred to fashion as “the rag trade”. But not all Op Artists agreed. Victor Vasarely designed fabrics for Edinburgh weavers.

The 1960’s was the time of the “mod” or modern look. For the first time, young people chose not to dress like their parents and, instead, developed a new look to reflect the modern times, and as an act of rebellion. This new mod look incorporated Pop and Op Art as well as Minimalism. While this fashion trend started in London with designers like Mary Quant, pop bands such as The Who quickly popularized it in America and around the world.

Was it great?

This really depends on whether you enjoy the dazzling effects. It obviously took a lot of thought, intellect, and research to discover all these little visual tricks, and to present them so well, in such large and elaborate artworks (most Op Art paintings are very large). It’s impressive on that level, but, on the other hand, if a particular work triggers nausea, vertigo, or an epileptic seizure, which some viewers experience, then it may be hard to appreciate it while you’re gagging. This is also one of the only genres where it's hard to know, just by looking, if a design is meant to be considered a work of art, worth thousands, or simply a scientist's diagram meant for a textbook or a paper on the subject of optics.

While some dare say it’s not art, merely decoration (and, at the time it was made, decoration was considered a sin) I think it’s fair to say that decoration matters. Decoration helps make our world lovelier and therefore more lovable. But, at its best, Op Art is certainly more than decoration. It’s a kind of visual puzzle to play with that helps you realize how limited your human eyes really are, and therefore your perception of reality.

Some leading figures:

M.C Escher (Dutch, 1898-1972) – Not officially recognized as part of the movement, but come on.

Victor Vasarely (Hungarian-French, 1906-1997) – The Founder of Op Art

Franco Grignani (Italian, 1908-1999)

John McHale (British, 1922-1978)

Jesús Rafael Soto (Venezuelan, 1923-2005)

Gregorio Vardanega (Italian-Argentine, 1923-2007)

Carlos Cruz-Diez (Venezuelan, 1927-)

Julian Stanczak (Polish-American, 1928-2017)

Julio Le Parc (Argentine, 1928-)

Yaacov Agam (Israeli, 1928-)

Arnold Alfred Schmidt (American, 1930-1993)