Op Art - A twentieth century art movement and style in which
artists sought to create an impression of movement on the picture
surface by means of optical illusion. It is derived from, and is also
known as Optical Art and Perceptual Abstraction. In the 1960s art
world, some critics faulted Op Art's persistent involvement with optical
illusion at a time when "the flatness of the picture plane" was the
mantra on either side of the Color Field - Minimalist aisle. Clement
Greenberg saw flatness as painting's essence. Donald Judd saw it as an
escape route into three dimensions.
Op art, also known as optical art, is used to describe some paintings
and other works of art which use optical illusions. Op art is also
referred to as geometric abstraction and hard-edge abstraction,
although the preferred term for it is perceptual abstraction. The term
"Op" bears resemblance to the other popular movement of the
1960s, Pop Art though one can be certain such monikers were
invoked for their catchiness and not for any stylistic similiarities.
"Optical Art is a method of painting concerning the interaction
between illusion and picture plane, between understanding and
seeing."[1] Op art works are abstract, with many of the better known
pieces made in only black and white. When the viewer looks at them,
the impression is given of movement, hidden images, flashing and
vibration, patterns, or alternatively, of swelling or warping.
Op Art is derived from the constructivist practices of the Bauhaus.
This German school, founded by Walter Gropius, stressed the
relationship of form and function within a framework of analysis and
rationality. Students were taught to focus on the overall design, or
entire composition, in order to present unified works. When the
Bauhaus was forced to close in 1933, many of its instructors fled to
the United States where the movement took root in Chicago and
eventually at the Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina,
where Anni and Josef Albers would come to teach.
The term first appeared in print in Time magazine in October 1964
[2]
, though works which might now be described as "op art" had been
produced for several years previously. For instance, Victor Vasarely's
painting, Zebras (1938), is made up entirely of curvilinear black and
white stripes that are not contained by contour lines. Consequently,
the stripes appear to both meld into and burst forth from the
surrounding black ground of the composition. Also the early black
and white Dazzle panels of John McHale installed at the This is
Tomorrow exhibit in 1956 and his Pandora series at the Institute of
Contemporary Arts in 1962 demonstrate proto-op tendencies
Black & White and the Figure-Ground Relationship
Op art is a perceptual experience related to how vision functions. It
is a dynamic visual art, stemming from a discordant figure-ground
relationship that causes the two planes to be in a tense and
contradictory juxtaposition. Op Art is created in two primary ways.
The first, and best known method, is the creation of effects through
the use of pattern and line. Often these paintings are black and
white, or otherwise grisaille. Such as in Bridget Riley's famous
painting, Current (1964), on the cover of The Responsive Eye
catalogue, black and white wavy lines are placed close to one
another on the canvas surface, creating such a volatile figure-ground
relatonship that one's eyes hurt. Another reaction that occurs is that
the lines create after images of certain colors due to how the retina
receives and processes light. As Goethe demonstrates in his treatise
Theory of Colours, at the edge where light and dark meet color
arises because lightness and darkness are the two central properties
in the creation of color.
Color
Bridget Riley later produced works in full color, and other Op artists
have worked in color as well, although these works tend to be less
well known. Josef Albers taught the two primary practioners of the
"Color Function" school at Yale in the 1950s: Richard Anuszkiewicz
and Julian Stanczak. Often, colorist work is dominated by the same
concerns of figure-ground movement, but they have the added
element of contrasting colors which have different effects on the eye.
Anuszkiewicz is a good example of this type of painting. In his
"temple" paintings, for instance, the juxtaposition of two highly
contrasting colors provokes a sense of depth in illusionistic three-
dimenensional space so that it appears as if the architetural shape is
invading the viewer's space.
Stanczak's compositions tend to be the most complex of all of the
color function practitioners. Taking his cue from Albers and his
influential book Interaction of Color, Stanczak deeply investigates
how color relationships work. "Stanczak created various spatial
experiences with color and geometry; the latter is far easier to
discuss. Color has no simple systematized equivalent. Indeed, there
may be no way to describe it that is both meaningful and accurate.
Descriptions of it (the color wheel or color solids, for example) are
all necessary distortions. While color derives from the
electromagnetic scale that corresponds to the magnitudes of energy
expressed by musical pitch, in fact, the neurological occidentals by
which we experience color make it seem multidimensional, while
musical pitch (not timbre, volume, or duration) is experienced as a
linear relationshiop...Stanczak's 'gift is for layering. Harranges
transparent patterns upon patterns so that you see through them as
gauziest screens, each one seeming to fold as if it moves.'"[3]
There are three major classes of the interaction of color:
simultaneous contrast, successive contrast, and reverse contrast (or
assimilation). (i) Simultaneous contrast may take place when one
area of color is surrounded by another area of a different color. In
general, contrast enhances the difference in brightness and/or color
between the interacting areas...Such constrast effects are mutual,
but if the surround area is larger and more intense than the area it
encloses, then the contrast is correspondingly out of balance, any
may appear to be exerted in one direction only. (ii) In successive
contrast, first one color is viewed and then another. This may be
achieved either by fixing the eye steadily on one color and then
quickly replacing that color with another, or by shifting fixation from
one color to another. (iii) In reverse contrast (sometimes called the
assimilation of color or the spreading effect) the lightness of white
or the darkness of black may seem to spread into neighboring
regions. Similarly, colors may appear to spread into or become
assimilated into neighboring areas. All such effects tend to make
neighboring areas appear more alike, rather than to enhance their
differences as in the more familiar simultaneous contrast, hence the
term reverse contrast (Jameson and Hurvich, 1975). Note that in the
interaction of color the constituent colors retain much of the own
identity even though they may be altered somewhat by contrast.
Steps:
1. Measure out 2 inch squares on paper. Make sure they are
straight and even. Cut out squares.
2. On each individual square create a small design using only
line. Consider using straight lines, curved, and even organic.
3. Play with the squares! Lay them edge to edge to create new and
interesting patterns. Note how your lines/ shapes match up.
Form a pattern that will cover the 8x10 canvas.
4. Once you have your pattern established, consider your shading.
The entire painting will be created using only black, white and
the full range of gray values. How you determine your shading
will drastically effect your painting.
5. Lay out your painting on the canvas using a ruler!
6. Demo on acrylic painting techniques. Plot out which areas you
can paint first and use the masking tape to block them in. Seal
the painting edge with medium with medium to prevent
craftsmanship issues.
7. Continue painting until canvas is complete. Don’t panic if you
make some errors! Acrylic allows you to paint over any area
and rework it.
8. Complete self evaluation.
OP Art Rubric
Measurement
1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10
Artwork does not Artwork has a Artwork has Artist has Artist has
use the two inch pattern using the created a pattern created a pattern created a pattern
measurements to two inch using the 2 inch using the 2 inch using the 2 inch
create the squares. Lines squares. It was squares. All squares and
pattern or may be crooked transferred onto measurements transferred them
design. or messy. the canvas but are correct. squarely onto the
may have shifted canvas. All lines
or was slightly are straight and
askew. all
measurements
are correct.
Figure/ground relationship
1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10
Artwork doesn’t Artwork may Artwork has Artist has Artist has
have any have one of the created a pattern created a pattern established an
recognizable floating forms using the 2 inch which does not undulating
pattern. Images with a squares that have a broken pattern which
are floating and background. doesn’t have a figure/ground hold’s a viewer’s
nothing is background but relationship. attention as an
connected. may not have a Optical illusion is optical illusion.
definitive implied. Pattern, values
figure/ground and paint imply
combination. that there are
forms in the
piece.
Painting technique
1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10
Artwork has Paint use is in Artist has applied Artist has used Artist has
been drawn out flat, blocks of the paint and has tape and medium explored the full
in pencil. There tone. This may begun shading as well as arsenal of acryilic
may be some be due to flat and shading. techniques, such
use of paint to application or experimented as blending,
outline. over blending. with a couple texture, tape,
techniques. and medium.
Tonal Value
1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10
There is some Artist has used Artist has Artist has used Full tonal range
evidence of paint one side of the explored one the acrylic paint is utilized
line work on the gradient scale side of the to create most of throughout the
page. and has left gradient scale a tonal scale. picture. It is
some areas of fully but has not There may be a manipulated to
the page empty, used the other need to push bring emphasis
devoid of any area of shading. values further. to the figure and
paint. Work may be ground.
very dark or very
light.
Craftsmanship
1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10
Artwork is ripped, Artwork has Artwork has bent Artwork has a Artwork is in
bent and barely minor rips or edge or minor minor smudge or pristine condition
recognizable. bent edges. smudges or bleed. and finished. It
Artwork is There may be bleeds. is signed by the
incomplete. Tape one or two artist on the
is still on work. inches of back.
incomplete work.