2. What is Modernism?
A revolution within Art. At the end of the 19th
century artists challenged
the traditions of the past. Artists were motivated to express their
interpretation of the world and themselves in new ways, rejecting the
approaches of their predecessors.
From this To this
Example of the change- 500 years of female portraits
John Constable
The Hay Wain -1821
Mark Rothko (1903-1970)
No. 3/No. 13 1949
3. The Industrial Revolution, a period that lasted from the 18th to the 19th century, in
which rapid changes in manufacturing, transportation, and technology profoundly
affected the social, economic, and cultural conditions of life.
Artists living in the rapidly modernising world of late 19th-century Europe wished not
only to depict modern everyday life, but also to reveal the emotional and
psychological effects of living in a world in rapid flux.
Artists like Henri Matisse and Paul Cézanne continued to paint quite traditional
subject matter—landscapes, portraits and still lifes—but they explored them in ways
that shocked their contemporaries.
Landscape at Collioure. 1905.
Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954)
Still Life with Apples. 1898
Paul Cézanne (French, 1839–1906)
What were the catalysts for the changes within
Art?
4. The invention of the camera meant that artists no longer had to depict the world in a
realistic way.
The Impressionists focused more on capturing the changing qualities of light and
atmosphere. They aimed to evoke a mood in the viewer, they interpreted a scene
rather than creating a realistic representation.
What were the catalysts for the changes within
Art?
Monet
Impression Sunrise
1872
5. With the publication of psychologist Sigmund Freud’s The
Interpretation of Dreams (1899) and the popularisation of the idea
of a subconscious mind, many artists began exploring dreams,
symbolism, and personal iconography as avenues for the depiction
of their subjective experiences.
What were the catalysts for the changes within
Art?
Max Ernst
Oedipus Rex, 1922
7. Modernism timeline
Slide show Impressionism & Post-Impressionism
1870 1880 1890 19101900 1920
Impressionism
Post-Impressionism
Fauvism
German ExpressionismSymbolism
Pointillism
Art Nouveau
1872-87- Edwaerd
Muybridge photographs a
horse in motion.
Photographs movement in
order to study physiology
of animals and humans.
Contemporary of Etienne
Marey.
1877- Thomas Edison
demonstrates a hand
cranked phonograph.
1884- Steam turbine
invented.
1889- Eiffel Tower is
completed in Paris.
1895- Lumiere Brothers
demonstrate a cinema
projector.
1899- Boer War begins
against the British in
South Africa.
1914-18- 1st
World War.
1913- Igor Stravinsky
initiates modernist
music with a riotous
performance of The
Rite of Spring in Paris.
8. Impressionism (c.1870-1890)
Degas
Are the colours what you would
expect to see in reality?
Is the painting realistic?
What is she doing?
Where is she?
Does her expression and pose give
us any insight into her character?
9. Post-Impressionism (c.1885-1905)
Are the colours what you would
expect to see in reality?
Is the painting realistic?
Does his expression and pose give
us any insight into his character?
What do the colours suggest?
What do you know about this man?
Have any of your answers been
influenced by other information
you might know about him?
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdkmyd_doctor-who-5x10-vincent-and-the-doc_shortfilms
Van Gogh
10. Fauvism (1905-1910)
Are the colours what you would
expect to see in reality?
Is the painting realistic?
What names would you give to the
groups of colours used?
Do the colours help you understand
anything about the subject?
Derain
11. Task:
Create a Fauvist inspired self portrait.
Use warm colours and cool colours .
Either divide the face into two halves. Or use cooler colours in the shadows
12. Either divide the face into two halves. Or use cooler colours in the shadows
13. You don’t have to use the acetate. You can collage over the original image. This is more
tricky so it’s important that your shapes are absolutely accurate!
16. Modernism timeline
Cubism and Futurism slide show
1870 1880 1890 19101900 1920
Impressionism
Post-Impressionism
Fauvism
German ExpressionismSymbolism
Pointillism
Art Nouveau
1872-87- Edwaerd
Muybridge photographs a
horse in motion.
Photographs movement in
order to study physiology
of animals and humans.
Contemporary of Etienne
Marey.
1877- Thomas Edison
demonstrates a hand
cranked phonograph.
1884- Steam turbine
invented.
1889- Eiffel Tower is
completed in Paris.
1895- Lumiere Brothers
demonstrate a cinema
projector.
1899- Boer War begins
against the British in
South Africa.
1914-18- 1st
World War.
1913- Igor Stravinsky
initiates modernist
music with a riotous
performance of The
Rite of Spring in Paris.
Cubism
17. Cubism (1907-1919)
Picasso
Are the colours what you would
expect to see in reality?
Is the painting realistic?
What is she doing?
Where is she?
Do we learn anything about her
character or the time it was
created?
18. 1
Arrange a collection of objects and create a line drawing of the composition.
Task:
Create a Cubist inspired, still life, chalk drawing.
19. 1
2
Move to a different point of the still life, draw this view over the top of your first drawing.
20. 1
2
3
Move to a different point of the still life, draw this view over the top of your drawing.
21.
22. Identify separate shapes
within your drawing that
have been created by
layering the separate views.
Do not outline recognisable
objects from the original still
life.
Shade each section
showing a transition from
light to dark.
Make sure that no two
shapes have the same
colour / tone next to each
other.
25. 1870 1880 1890 19101900 1920
Impressionism
Post-Impressionism
Fauvism
German ExpressionismSymbolism
Pointillism
Art Nouveau
1872-87- Edwaerd
Muybridge photographs a
horse in motion.
Photographs movement in
order to study physiology
of animals and humans.
Contemporary of Etienne
Marey.
1877- Thomas Edison
demonstrates a hand
cranked phonograph.
1884- Steam turbine
invented.
1889- Eiffel Tower is
completed in Paris.
1895- Lumiere Borthers
demonstrate a cinema
projector.
1899- Boer War begins
against the British in
South Africa.
1914-18- 1st
World War.
1913- Igor Stravinsky
initiates modernist
music with a riotous
performance of The
Rite of Spring in Paris.
Cubism
Futurism
Modernism timeline
Cubism and Futurism slide show
26. Futurism (1909-1916)
Bragaglia
Do the subjects look human?
What does the man in the Prampolini image look
like?
What can you see in the background of the bottom
image?
From looking at these images, what would you
say the Futurists were interested in?
Prampolini
27. Futurism
The Futurists loved speed, noise, machines,
pollution, and cities; they embraced the exciting
new world that was then upon them.
28. Futurism
The Futurism movement really began with the publication of the poet
Filippo Marinetti’s Futurism Manifesto, in Le Figaro in February 1909.
The manifesto included the following points:
We want to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and
rashness.
We declare that the splendour of the world has been
enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing
automobile with its bonnet adorned with great tubes like
serpents with explosive breath ... a roaring motor car which
seems to run on machine-gun fire, is more beautiful than the
Victory of Samothrace.
We want to sing the man at the wheel, the ideal axis of which
crosses the earth, itself hurled along its orbit.
30. Task:
Create an image that expresses movement.
Use the photographs taken by E.J. Marey and Edwaerd Muybridge to mono print
from.
• Ink up your acrylic plate with a roller
• Make sure you have a thin layer of ink that covers the plate.
• Blot excess ink off using newspaper. You want it to just go on your finger and
not be too sticky.
• Place your paper onto the ink and carefully lay an image down to trace.
• The ink will go onto the paper wherever you put pressure so try not to rub
your hand over the paper as you are drawing.
• When you have finished lift the paper to see your final print.
To develop your print work into it
with paints, pencil crayon, oil
pastels, collage.
Use different coloured and
textured back-grounds to work
onto.
Experiment with a range of
pressures and types of line.
36. Modernism timeline
Dada and Surrealism slideshow
19101900 1920
Fauvism
German Expressionism
umiere Brothers
trate a cinema
r.
1899- Boer War begins
against the British in
South Africa.
1914-18- 1st
World War.
1913- Igor Stravinsky
initiates modernist
music with a riotous
performance of The
Rite of Spring in Paris.
Cubism
1930 1940
Futurism Dada
Orphism
Die Brucke
Der Blaue Reiter
De Stijl
Constructivism
Bauhaus
1924- First round the
world flight.
1927- First
demonstration of
television.
1929- US stock market
crashes. World
economic depression
sets in.
1933- Adolf Hitler
comes to power.
1933- German bombers
annihilate the town,
Guernica.
1939- World War 2
begins as Germany
invades Poland.
Surrealism
37. Dada (1916-1922)
Are these realistic portraits?
How have they been made- is it a traditional way of working?
Does the word ‘Dada’ mean anything to you?
Hannah Hoch Raoul Hausmann
38. Surrealism (1924 – 1939, disbanded by WW2)
Are these realistic portraits? Are they possible situations?
When might you experience these images?
Salvador Dali Rene Magritte
39. Task:
Create an imaginary space.
There are recurring motifs within the work of the Surrealists, particularly within
the work of Dali, Magritte and Georgio de Chirico. Use a combination of these
symbols to create a surreal place- collage, trace or draw fee hand.
Think carefully about:
• The location- start with this;
• Foreground, mid-ground and background;
• Scale of the objects in relation to each other;
• The time of day. Give your objects shadows if they are outside. The
longer they are the later in the day it is.
50. Modernism timeline
Abstract Expressionism slideshow
Pop Art slideshow
1920
ky
s
e
Paris.
1930 1940
ada
ter
Stijl
nstructivism
Bauhaus
1924- First round the
world flight.
1927- First
demonstration of
television.
1929- US stock market
crashes. World
economic depression
sets in.
1933- Adolf Hitler
comes to power.
1933- German bombers
annihilate the town,
Guernica.
1939- World War 2
begins as Germany
invades Poland.
Surrealism
1950 1960
Abstract Expressionism
Colour Field Painting
Pop Art
1970
1945- Hostilities end in
Europe.
US drops atomic bombs
on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki ending the
war in the Pacific.
1950- Korean War
begins.
1956- Alabama bus
boycott. Civil rights
movement is born.
1961- USSR send first
manned flight into space
1969- Two US
astronauts walk on
the moon.
51. How would you describe the marks in this painting?
What atmosphere has been created? Does the title of the piece help?
How does this piece make you feel?
Abstract Expressionism 1945 - 1960
Jackson Pollock
No. 1 (Lavender Mist)
1950
52. Task:
Divide a page in your book into 4. Listen to the four different pieces of music that
Jackson Pollock would listen to while painting. Draw the marks and shapes that
you feel reflect each piece.
Duke Ellington: 'Solitude’
Louis Armstrong: 'Mahogany Hall Stomp’
Coleman Hawkins: 'My Ideal'
Count Basie and His Orchestra: Boogie Woogie Blues
Extension: Work collaboratively on one piece combining the different marks for
one piece of music.
53. Pop Art mid 1950s-1960s
What do you see?
What do you think the Pop artists were inspired by?
Are there any portraits here?
54. Task:
Create a piece in the style of Roy Lichtenstein.
• In groups of 2/3 create a scene reminiscent of cartoon images. Keep the
composition cropped tight to heads and shoulders.
• By next week your teacher will have printed these images and enlarged
them to at least A3.
• Trace your image and transfer it onto cartridge paper.
• Work the paint with sponges through the punchinella to add colour and
create a similar effect to Lichtenstein’s, comic book ink dots.
57. Modernism timeline
Op Art slideshow
1940
dolf Hitler
o power.
- German bombers
hilate the town,
nica.
1939- World War 2
begins as Germany
invades Poland.
1950 1960
Abstract Expressionism
Colour Field Painting
Pop Art
1970
1945- Hostilities end in
Europe.
US drops atomic bombs
on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki ending the
war in the Pacific.
1950- Korean War
begins.
1956- Alabama bus
boycott. Civil rights
movement is born.
1961- USSR send first
manned flight into space
1969- Two US
astronauts walk on
the moon.
Minimalism
1980 1990
Op Art
Neo-Expressionism
1973- Cease fire
declared in Vietnam.
1980- IBM introduces
personal computer.
1989- Berlin Wall is
torn down.
58. Op Art 1964 - 1970
Bridget Riley
‘Hesitate’ 1964
Explain what you see to your
partner.
Does the image appear to
move?
How has Riley achieved this
effect?
59. There are three main effects of Op Art
3 Dimensional Illusion Movement
Label the effect of each below.
1._____________ 2.______________ 3._____________
60. Follow the steps below to create a simple op art design in the box
below.
Draw a set of
parallel lines
down the centre
of your page.
Now draw vertical lines
through the lines.
Make the lines get
gradually closer
towards the centre
then gradually
increase the spacing
towards the other side.
Neatly colour
squares
alternately in
black.
Task:
Create an optical piece of work.
61. Creating more complex Op Art
Follow the steps below to create a more complex op art design.
Draw a circle. Grid the
circle but make the lines
flex with the shape of the
circle.
Draw a grid in the back
ground.
Neatly colour squares
alternately in black.
the Impressionists were very involved with optical colour, and tried to express the sensation of light and atmosphere in their paintings. The Impressionists applied dots, dabs or brush strokes of spectral colours and did not mix black with any colours. Impressionism is the name given to a colorful style of painting in France at the end of the 19th century. The Impressionists searched for a more exact analysis of the effects of color and light in nature. They sought to capture the atmosphere of a particular time of day or the effects of different weather conditions. They often worked outdoors and applied their paint in small brightly colored strokes which meant sacrificing much of the outline and detail of their subject. Impressionism abandoned the conventional idea that the shadow of an object was made up from its color with some brown or black added. Instead, the Impressionists enriched their colors with the idea that a shadow is broken up with dashes of its complementary color. Among the most important Impressionist painters were Claude Monet , Pierre Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley and Henri de Toulouse Lautrec.
In 1888 Van Gogh experienced a psychotic episode, famously cutting off part of his own ear. He voluntarily entered a psychiatric hospital, where the admitting physician described him as suffering from acute mania with hallucinations of sight and hearing'. Could these hallucinations have influenced some of his most famous paintings? It has also been argued that the painting Starry Night, with its swirling night sky, may have represented the haloes seen by patients treated with digitalis, a drug that Van Gogh took to counteract his epilepsy. Post-Impressionists extended Impressionism while rejecting its limitations: they continued using vivid colours, thick application of paint, distinctive brush strokes, and real-life subject matter, but they were more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, to distort form for expressive effect, and to use unnatural or arbitrary colour. Post Impressionism was not a particular style of painting. It was the collective title given to the works of a few independent artists at the end of the 19th century. The Post Impressionists rebelled against the limitations of Impressionism to develop a range of personal styles that influenced the development of art in the 20th century. The major artists associated with Post Impressionism were Paul Cézanne , Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh and Georges Seurat. Cézanne was an important influence on Picasso and Braque in their development of Cubism . Van Gogh's vigorous and vibrant painting technique was one of the touchstones of both Fauvism and Expressionism , while Gauguin's symbolic color and Seurat's pointillist technique were an inspiration to 'Les Fauves'.
THE FAUVES : the small group of artists who, shortly after the turn of the 20th century, exploded onto the art scene with a wild, vibrant style of expressionistic work that shocked the critics. Once considered a minor, short-lived art movement, fauvism is now recognized as having opened the way for both cubism and modern expressionism through its open disregard for natural form and its love of unbridled colour. (French for “wild beasts”) discordant colour -- when arranged next to each other, they compete or clash-- in a blue/orange discord blue should be made slightly lighter than the oranges, since blues are normally darker. -- any two colours, whether they are adjacent (beside--analogous) or opposite (complementary), can be made to clash either making tonal values equal or by creating an inversion of the natural tonal order of the colours (normal order: yellow is brighter than red, red is brighter than blue.) Fauvism was a joyful style of painting that delighted in using outrageously bold colors. It was developed in France at the beginning of the 20th century by Henri Matisse and André Derain. The artists who painted in this style were known as 'Les Fauves' (the wild beasts), a title that came from a sarcastic remark in a review by the art critic Louis Vauxcelles. 'Les Fauves' believed that color should be used at its highest pitch to express the artist's feelings about a subject, rather than simply to describe what it looks like. Fauvist paintings have two main characteristics: extremely simplified drawing and intensely exaggerated color. Fauvism was a major influence on German Expressionism .
Cubism was invented around 1907 in Paris by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. It was the first abstract style of modern art. Cubist paintings ignore the traditions of perspective drawing and show you many views of a subject at one time. The Cubists believed that the traditions of Western art had become exhausted and to revitalize their work, they drew on the expressive energy of art from other cultures, particularly African art. There are two distinct phases of the Cubist style: Analytical Cubism (pre 1912) and Synthetic Cubism (post 1912). Cubism influenced many other styles of modern art including Expressionism, Futurism, Orphism, Vorticism, Suprematism, Constructivism and De Stijl. Other notable artists associated with Cubism were Juan Gris, Fernand Leger, Robert Delaunay, Albert Gleizes, Jean Metzinger, Louis Marcoussis and Marie Laurencin.
Futurism, the style of art which encompasses power, force, motion, technology, progress and machinery, was in its synthetic phase when Prampolini first entered it. The initial phase of Futurism, the analytical phase, was founded by Marinetti in 1909, and it took many forms after that. Futurism was a revolutionary Italian movement that celebrated modernity. The Futurist vision was outlined in a series of manifestos that attacked the long tradition of Italian art in favour of a new avant-garde. They glorified industrialization, technology, and transport along with the speed, noise and energy of urban life. The Futurists adopted the visual vocabulary of Cubism to express their ideas - but with a slight twist. In a Cubist painting the artist records selected details of a subject as he moves around it, whereas in a Futurist painting the subject itself seems to move around the artist. The effect of this is that Futurist paintings appear more dynamic than their Cubist counterparts. Futurism was founded in 1909 by the poet Filippo Tommas Marinetti and embraced the arts in their widest sense. The main figures associated with the movement were the artists, Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Gino Severini, the musician Luigi Russolo and the architect Antonio Sant'Elia.
Dada was not a style of art like Fauvism or Cubism. It was a form of artistic anarchy born out of disgust for the social, political and cultural establishment of the time which it held responsible for Europe's descent into World War 1. Dadaism was an ‘anti art’ stance as it was intent on destroying the artistic values of the past. The aim of Dada was to create a climate in which art was alive to the moment and not paralysed by the corrupted traditions of the established order. Dada’s weapons in the war against the art establishment were confrontation and provocation. They confronted the artistic establishment with the irrationality of their collages and assemblages and provoked conservative complacency with outrageous actions at their exhibitions and meetings. The Dada movement started in Zurich and spread as far as New York. Marcel Duchamp, Raoul Hausmann, Jean Arp and Kurt Schwitters were among the best of the Dada artists.
Surrealism was the positive response to Dada's negativity. Its aim, as outlined in the First Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, was to liberate the artist's imagination by tapping into the unconscious mind to discover a 'superior' reality - a 'sur-reality'. To achieve this the Surrealists drew upon the images of dreams, the effects of combining disassociated images, and the technique of 'pure psychic automatism', a spontaneous form of drawing without the conscious control of the mind. The look of Surrealist art was inspired by the irrational juxtaposition of images in Dada collages, the metaphysical art of Giorgio de Chirico, and both 'primitive' and 'outsider' art. The most influential of the Surrealist artists were Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Salvador Dali and René Magritte. The movement broke up at the outbreak of war in 1939 when several of the Surrealists left Europe for New York where they had a formative influence on the development of Abstract Expressionism.
Abstract Expressionism was the first American art style to exert an influence on a global scale. It drew upon the ‘spiritual’ approach of Kandinsky, the 'automatism' of the Surrealists, and a range of dramatic painting techniques. Abstract Expressionism was also known as ‘Action Painting’, a title which implied that the physical act of painting was as important as the result itself. The Abstract Expressionist movement embraced paintings from a wide range of artists whose work was not always purely abstract or truly expressionistic. The ‘all-over’ drip paintings of Jackson Pollock, which entangle the viewer in a skein of light, color and texture, were the biggest challenge to the interpretation of pictorial space since Cubism. The paintings of Mark Rothko bathe the spectator in a mystical world of diffuse color while the art of Robert Motherwell sets up an abstract dialogue between his 'automatic' calligraphy and the conscious control of shapes and colors. Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Barnet Newman and Clifford Still were other major figures associated with the movement. If you’re not familiar with Jackson Pollock’s work you can be forgiven for thinking this is a mindless mess of paint. Pollock became influenced by Picasso , Miro and the surrealists but soon developed his own unique style which he would later become famous for. Pollock’s notorious brush drip technique is achieved by the tacking of the large canvas onto the floor while using the medium of alkyd enamels which are a synthetic type of paint. He would then proceed by even mixing common materials such as sand and glass among the paint in a devastating fashion, flinging it recklessly onto the canvas. His implements would range from brushes to sticks and even basting syringes to apply the thick stream of paint. This technique allowed Pollock to apply paint from all angles and sides of the canvas and because of this he was able to explore revolutionary dimensions of painting; he would later become infamous for this style. In No. 1 (Lavender Mist) he manages to forge a landscape which is truly for the senses which delivers contrasting shades as well as differentiating colours which will in turn take your eyes across the whole painting. Pollock uses mainly green, white, black and in some cases brown to give the painting an earthy appearance, further demonstrating on the idea of textual layers which are clearly presented to the viewer. The elements and principles Pollock uses here are colour, contrast, texture, emphasis and variety. The use of colour contributes to the overall effect of the painting which appears to be very earthy, atmospheric and relatively calm from the light of the whites to the intense streaks of striking black. Contrast is used here to balance the whole picture resulting in a flowing formation which Pollock was most prized and famed for. Texture in this piece is an important factor as well as in the majority of Pollock’s oeuvre. His use of texture here allows the painting to have multiple layers and of a 3D like appearance thus creating a shimmery texture. Pollock achieves this through the use of impasto with thick layers of paint from green to black to white and brown. Emphasis is rarely seen in Pollock’s work however the focal point of the painting is the thick and long streaks of black. These black streaks border the entire painting which in turn allows the viewer to be directed around the painting to the four corners of the canvas. No. 1 (Lavender Mist) contains a lot of variety making the picture not boring or for a better word monotonous. Pollock’s work and technique have seen him branded as “childish” or that his work is not “art.” However Pollock still remains one of the leading figures in Abstract Expressionism . His drip paint technique was revolutionary and the psyche he was able to get into when he applied paint to canvas. Jackson Pollock’s Avant-garde style saw many more masterpieces produced and No. 1 (Lavender Mist) rightly belongs on the term ‘masterpiece.’ Size is significant: Autumn Rhythm is 207 inches wide. It assumes the scale of an environment, enveloping both for the artist as he created it and for viewers who confront it. The work is a record of its process of coming-into-being. Its dynamic visual rhythms and sensations—buoyant, heavy, graceful, arcing, swirling, pooling lines of color—are direct evidence of the very physical choreography of applying the paint with the artist's new methods. Spontaneity was a critical element. But lack of premeditation should not be confused with ceding control; as Pollock stated, "I can control the flow of paint: there is no accident." For Pollock, as for the Abstract Expressionists in general, art had to convey significant or revelatory content. He had arrived at abstraction having studied with Thomas Hart Benton, worked briefly with the Mexican muralists, confronted the methods and philosophy of the Surrealists, and immersed himself in a study of myth, archetype, and ancient and "primitive" art. And the divide between abstraction and figuration was more nuanced—there was a back-and-forth at various moments in his career. Toward the end of his life (he died in a car accident in 1956), he said, "I'm very representational some of the time, and a little all of the time. But when you're working out of your unconscious, figures are bound to emerge. … Painting is a state of being. … Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is."
Pop Art was the art movement that characterized a sense of optimism during the post war consumer boom of the 1950's and 60's. It coincided with the globalization of pop music and youth culture, personified by Elvis and The Beatles. Pop Art was brash, colorful, young, fun and hostile to the artistic establishment. It included different styles of painting and sculpture from various countries, but what they all had in common was an interest in popular culture. The stark look of Pop Art emerged from a fusion of Dada collages and 'readymades' with the imagery of the consumer culture. It was seen as an antidote to the introspection of Abstract Expressionism. The expressive techniques of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg provided the stylistic link between Abstract Expressionism and Pop but the images of celebrity and consumerism by Andy Warhol and the comic book iconography of Roy Lichtenstein represent the style as we know it today.
Op Art is short for 'optical art'. It was an abstract style that emerged in the 1960's based on the illusionistic effects of line, shape, pattern and color. Op Artists such as Victor Vasarely, Bridget Riley and Richard Anuszkiewicz play with the perception of the viewer by subverting the picture plane with ambiguous shapes, shifting tones and dynamic color relationships. Although Op Art images are static they generate the illusion of movement with perceptual tricks that create an unstable picture surface. The effects of this can be so strong that you have to look away for fear of losing your balance or hurting your eyes. Needless to say that the fairground fun aspect of Op Art was very popular with the public and was quickly commercialized by the design and fashion industries. Bridget Riley - Op Art part 1 Bridget Riley is one of Britain’s best-known artists whose career has spanned over 50 years. She first came to notice in the early 1960s with monochrome paintings that explored the dynamics of optical effects. “In my earlier paintings, I wanted the space between the picture plane and the spectator to be active. It was in that space, paradoxically, the painting 'took place…then, little by little, and, to some extent deliberately, I made it go the other way, opening up an interior space, as it were, so that there was a layered, shallow depth. It is important that the painting can be inhabited, so that the mind's eye, or the eye's mind, can move about it credibly." In 1967 Riley began experimenting with colour, and since then her paintings have examined the perception of nature by means of colour and form. “The eye can travel over the surface in a way parallel to the way it moves over nature. It should feel caressed and soothed, experience frictions and ruptures, glide and drift…one moment there will be nothing to look at and the next second the canvas seems to refill, to be crowded with visual events.”
