Op Art

Richard Anuszkiewicz was part of a group of artists who made art in the style named "Op Art" short for optical art. These kinds of paintings were illusions. They created illusions using either color, lines, or a combination of the two to create optical illusions. These illusions mostly either looked like something was coming toward the viewer from the canvas, something looked concave on the canvas, or the painting had the illusion that it was moving or vibrating due to the color, shape, or pattern the artist used.

This piece of art made by Richard Anuszkiewicz is entitled "Convexity" and has created the illusion that the diamond shape in the middle of the painting is convex as compared to the rest of the painting.

This is one of Anuszkiewicz's creations where it appears that the pink square in the middle of the canvas is rising up toward the viewer.

 

Another artist that was known for creating this kind of art pieces is Victor Vasarely. One of his more famous optical art paintings is called "Vega 200".

This painting looks like something we would see now-a-days on a calendar or in a magazine that was industrially produced. We can now make these illusions on our home computer in much less time than it would take these artists to draw and paint these by hand. This painting has the illusion that the sphere in the middle of the canvas is convex like the painting above.

These patterns and illusions have impacted our daily lives since they began. One area that they have had particular influence is in fashion.

Here we see an optical illusion on a dress that looks as if the woman wearing it is standing sideways and on her tiptoes.

This is yet another example of how optical art has influenced many other factors in our lives, like fashion. Optical illusions in fashion serve many purposes. For women, it could help make your waist or hips look smaller, it could emphasize things that you want to emphasize and deemphasize things you would rather not have emphasized.