Op Art & Victor Vasarely

"Every form is base for color, every color is the attribute of a form" -Victor Vasarely

Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian-French pioneer of the three dimensional, illusionary art movement known as Op Art.When growing up Vasarely was not necessarily interested in art, but more interested in science. I assume this played a huge factor in his ability to create a new form of art that is now used broadly in computer science. Op Art is short for Optical Art for it plays with the eyes and mind. If seeing is believing it makes the viewer question question their beliefs. For instance, in class I barely got the name of the artist in my notes cause I just did not want to look away from Vasarely's Vega 200. 

What is amazing about this painting is that... it is a painting done in 1968. Of course now you could easily input in a function into a computer program to come up with a similar three dimensional piece, but this is a painting from 1968! These paintings work by causing two plains in the viewers visual realm to become in an intense contradictory juxtaposition. Vasarely and other pop art icons had to of had a very unique and keen understanding of perspective and how to manipulate them in order to produce such optical illusions. In his Vega 200 he uses different sizes of the circles and the space between them to create the three dimensional illusion. The colors red, green, and blue are strategically chosen as well because they are primary colors that have more of an effect in the contradicting juxtaposition battle of perception. 

Bridget Riley 

Articles acclaim that since these artistes time, their style has diminished. I believe this is hardly the case. It may have diminished in the sense of "paint on canvas" but when is the last time you've gone to the movie theater without the option of seeing a 3-D film? Or a film that is not edited with visual special effects? Their philosophy and ideas are still around, they just technologically got picked up into a new media. 

Sources:

http://www.ehow.com/info_8664315_retinal-effects-op-art.html

http://www.theartstory.org/movement-op-art.htm
http://www.op-art.co.uk/victor-vasarely/