Art has always been concerned with illusion. Even the most rigorous realists deceive the eye, evoking spatial depth on the two-dimensional surface of the canvas. But it wasn't until the mid-60s, with the inception of Op art, that perceptual deception became... [more]

Art has always been concerned with illusion. Even the most rigorous realists deceive the eye, evoking spatial depth on the two-dimensional surface of the canvas. But it wasn't until the mid-60s, with the inception of Op art, that perceptual deception became art's explicit objective. By eliminating figures and producing instead complex configurations of lines and shapes that pullulate as the eye attempts to apprehend them, Op artists foregrounded the illusions intrinsic to art and brought to the surface its own implicit intent to deceive. Forcing the viewer's eye to err while at the same time making it perfectly clear to this viewer that he or she is, indeed, in the midst of error, Op art questions the reality of what we perceive, and mocks, in a sense, our confidence in the accuracy of the eye. Op art's energy resides in the kind of perception it imposes on the attentive viewer, the troubling and fatiguing experience it forces the eye to undergo by means of optical tricks. Op art endured for only a brief period between 1964 and 1968, emerging after the waning of Abstract Expressionism and before the explosion of Pop art. Its force was felt most potently in Europe, where it was brought into public view by Victor Vassely, a Hungarian working in Paris, and by the British artists Bridget Riley and Peter Sedgely. Although denounced by some as a specious appropriation of psychology textbooks, Op art nevertheless captured a substantial audience in various countries, inspiring not only other artists but also phenomenologists and psychologists intent on investigating the nature of perception. As it was for the Italian Futurists, the project of bringing movement to the static surface of the canvas was fundamental for Op art. Op art achieved this effect by covering the surface with woven lines, wavy stripes, pointillist grids, and broken spirals that twist, fold into themselves, and flip over. The viewer experiences a kind of teeming sensation, difficult at times to endure, as the patterns undulate like a field of wheat whipped by torrential winds, or buzz about in a frenzy like a swarm of flies. The eye that tries to straighten the pattern out, put a stop to its frantic undulation, only suffers from the obstinate impossibility of doing so, and eventually relinquishes its efforts. It is as if our eyes prefer, at times, to be deceived. And Op art studies, with fastidious attention to detail, the mechanisms and perceptual tropes that bring this deception about. [show less]