OP Art

OP Art is a type of art that focuses on the fooling of people by using optical
illusions through abstract art. This movement principally had its most impact from the
1965 to 1970. This was after The Responsive Eye exhibition in New York City at the
Museum of Modern Arts; this fascinated and impressed everyone there. Suddenly, many
started adding it into other areas such as fashion and entertainment. The main artists of
this movement are Victor Vasarely (1906-1997), Joseph Albers (1888-1976), Bridget Riley
(1931), and Peter Sedgley (1930). OP Art focuses on the abstract. It is a concrete type of
art with geometric shapes; with these, they can create an optical illusion to the human
eye in different ways. Artists commonly use patterns, colors, figures particularly selected
and formed so they can cause a sense of discomfort to the human eye. For that, it is used
as well as positive and negative spaces to create such illusions. These usually provoke a
sense of movement with side effects like nausea, swelling, warping, and others.

In this Art Movement, there is something that characterizes it and it’s trompe-
l’oeil. The Trompe-l’oeil effect is that in an artwork, the view of the object is deceived
regarding the material reality of it, exchanging it with a very similar one. There are
different ways of using this technique. One of them can be adding a more realistic feature
to the artwork such as mosquitos or rotten fruit. Another is simulating a sense of texture
in the picture, this is called “camaieu”. Lastly, there is simulation of using false objects or
backgrounds. In optical illusions, it can be clearly identified that the most common way to
use it is as a “camaieu” because it allows viewers to feel deeper the illusion due to the
texture sense, making them think more of it as something they can approach rather than a
2D paint.

Such characteristics can be seen clearly in my selected artwork which is Pulsar –

red from Victor Vasarely. The first one of these can be that it has made in a board instead
of a canvas; this is so because being in such medium allows to have a bigger image which
the public can see recognize and appreciate. Moreover, the paint being on a board well
gives a bigger size of the art, in which the people can see the optical illusion better and be
able to experience it as the artist truly wants.

In the artwork Pulsar - red, I truly see its OP art appearance; I recognize the positive
and negative spaces in the painting. As well as a sense of movement in it. Moreover, I
recognize the abstract form as there is a complete sphere but filled with cubes inside it;
the cubes become even more recognizable when I focus on the cubes inside the sphere
that creates the spherical form. Furthermore, the colors as well improves the illusion due
to the more realistic looks they offer; the colors used are green, orange, blue, purple,
black, red cubes and a sphere.

In Pulsar – red, the trompe-l’oeil effect is seen through “camaieu” because it

demonstrates a texture sense through the cubes. The cubes are simply drawn without any
alteration, just the place and look of it; however, we can see the feel of texture in it as a
sphere is created and also that the sphere is floating since there isn’t a floor or solid in
which its standing –that’s due to the texture of the paint.

http://www.ilusionario.es/ARTE/trompe.htm