Optical Art
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Op Art
Op Art can be traced back to the Bauhaus style of
geometric shapes
You can also see the influence of the Kinetic
movement in Op Art
Etudes Bauhaus C, 1929
Victor Vasarely
Bicycle wheel, 1913
Marcel Duchamp
Cyclograveur, 1929
Jean Tinguely
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What is Op Art?
• Op Art or Optical Art are abstract pieces
• Highly contrasting, sometimes colour but more often painted in
black and white
• When looked at the works give the illusion of movement
• The viewer is dazzled, sees flashing, vibration, swelling,
warping and hidden images
Untitled Diagonal Curve, 1966
Bridget Riley
Victor Vasarely - Hungarian painter,1906-97
• Studied medicine for two years
• Studied at the Muhely Academy - the Bauhaus equivalent in Bud
• His studies in medicine left him with a strong sense of scientific m
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Bridget Riley - English painter, 1931 -
• Studied painting at Goldsmiths and the Royal College of Art
• Taught Art at several schools and colleges
• Changed style dramatically before developing Op art in the mid 1
Riley was inspired by the pointillist technique of Seurat
Riley turned to abstraction around 1960
Her work is said to induce feelings of seasickness
“High-voltage” - is how the British painter Bridget Riley describes
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her work
Cataract III
1967
From 1967 onwards Riley began to use more colour. It is the
positioning of the colour which produces the feeling of
movement. The colour groupings affected the spaces between
them to produce fleeting glimpses of other colours and the
illusion of movement.
• Riley’s works are large scale. Small colour studies are used to
plan the paintings, then they are scaled up and painted by
hand without the use of ruler or masking tape
• She has the help assistants because the pieces are so large
• She is still working today
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Carlos Cruz-Diez - Venezuela, 1923-
Transchromie, 1965
Coloured, transparent strips which change
according to the movement of the viewer and
the intensity of the light
Physiocromie, 1959
layers of coloured screens
which trap light
Jim Lambie - 1964 - Glasgow
In 1999 Lambie created pieces influenced by Op Art
Zobop, 1999
Vinyl tape
The influence of Op Art on fashion
Photorealism
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Photorealism
• Super realistic paintings and sculptures
• The results were almost photographic
• Artists worked from photographs closely copying
every detail
• Evolved from the work of Pop Art and a reaction to
Abstract Expressionism
• Although its centre was the United States, the
Photorealism movement was also strong in Europe
from the late 1960’s to the1970’s
• In Europe this type of art is known as Super-realism
American Photorealist painters:
• Chuck Close, 1940 • Richard Estes, 1932 • Audrey Flack, 1931 • Charles Bell, 1935-95
• Ralph Goings, 1928 -
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Richard Estes, 1932-
Telephone Booths, 1968
Times Square, 2004
• Best known for his paintings of city scenes of New York
• He compiles his compositions from multiple source
photographs
• He often incorporates reflective surfaces, such as shop
windows and shiny cars
Chuck Close, 1940-
Big Self-Portrait, 1967/8
Acrylic on canvas
Georgia, 1985
pulp paper on Canvas
Andres, 2006
Jacquard tapestry
• Suffers from Prosopagnosia (face blindness)
• Works in many different mediums
• Severely paralysed from a spinal artery collapse in the 1980’s
Close repeats images in different mediums and styles
Mark, 1978/9
Mark, 2012
Felt stamp
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Self-portrait, 2005/5
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Audrey Flack, 1931-
Marilyn, 1977
Flack began using photographs as material for her paintings as
far back as the early sixties
Her paintings tell stories through still-life’s and portraits
Charles Bell, 1935-1995
His paintings and graphic prints are distinguished by the fact that the subject
matter is depicted in a scale as much as ten times life size, with colours
which are the clear and vibrant
Ralph Goings,1928-
Donut, 1995
“... It occurred to me that projecting and tracing the photograph instead
of copying it freehand would be even more shocking. To copy a
photograph literally was considered a bad thing to do. It went against all
of my art school training... some people were upset by what I was doing
and said ’it can't possibly be art'. That gave me encouragement in a
perverse way, because I was delighted to be doing something that was
really upsetting people... I was having a hell of a lot of fun..."