Origins and Influences on Op Art
Origins – Bahaus – Geometric Form Founded in Germany in 1919 by Walter Gropius the Bauhaus school brought together artists, architects, and designers in an extraordinary conversation about the nature of art in the age of technology. This was a school of Architecture and Applied Arts, its disciplined style based on the fundamental geometric shapes of the cube, the rectangle and the circle. The revolutionary Bahaus teaching method replaced the traditional pupil-teacher relationship with the idea of a community of artists working together.
Despite being shut down by the Nazis in 1933, Bahaus lived on with other schools starting in the US and Budapest. Its influence on European and American art was immense and it was certainly one of the strongest influences on Op Art. Victor Vasarely, the ‘father’ of Op Art trained in the Budapest Bahaus school.
Origins – Kinetic Art – Movement Starting in 1913 with Duchamp’s ‘Bicycle wheel’ and popularised in Russia in the 1920s by artists such as Naum Gabo, Kinetic Art concerned itself with the creation of real or illusory movement. Approaches to the discipline were diverse. Sculptors such as Jean Tinguely used all sorts of materials, sometimes collecing scrap to construct moving sculptures. For instance, ‘Cyclograveur’ (shown right) invited the viewer to climb on the saddle and pedal to make it move. Another scuplptor, Alexander Calder, eliminated the conventional pedestal and hung his constructions from the ceiling on long rods, so they became known as mobiles.
Kinetic Art primarily took the form of sculpture and was at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, with artists such as Calder and George Rickey leading the way. Clearly sculpture lent itself to movement; the question was how to create movement on a 2D surface.
P
attern,
Line, Optical Illusion and ‘Movement’
In
some respects, Op Art can be thought of as a development from Kinetic
Art. The question posed was how to provide the viewer with an
illusion of movement on a static 2D surface. Exploitation of the
fallibility of the eye through the use of optical illusion provided
Op Artists with the answer.
The use of repetition of pattern and line, often in high contrast black and white was one way Op Artists used to create this illusion of movement. The overall optical effect of the technique leads the viewer to see flashing and vibration, or alternatively swelling or warping.
Riley’s Untitled Diagonal Curve (shown right) is a good example of this technique, where black and white wavy lines are placed close to one another on the canvas making the surface appear to shimmer and move before the eyes.
Traditional Perspective and ‘Depth’ The separation of art from traditional perspective that began with Cezanne in the late 19th Century allowed for the birth of the Abstract and Expressionist movements amongst others, both important influences on Op Art.
Because of its geometrically-based nature, Op Art is, almost without exception, non-representational. However, despite this non-represenational nature, the Op Artists made extensive use of the traditional perspective techniques originally developed to allow for the accurate representation of the natural world in art, in order to create the feeling of depth and space within their paintings.