Op Art

This is a selection of art that in inspires me Op art. M.C Escher can be considered the father of Op art. His lithographs,woodcuts, impossible constructions often mathematically inspired mixing infinity with architecture

 and his love of Roman and Italian landscapes ( I lived in the same street where his house was in Italy) while incorporating three dimensional elements to his work I have always found highly innovative for his time.

The Escher Museum in the Hague, The Netherlands. I Have been there twice recently. The Museum is housed in the Lounge Voorhout Palace from the eighteenth century and has an air of grandour with 15 chandeliers made by Dutch artist Hans Van Bentem. They have a really good selection of Escher's work including unseen pieces like the Asteroid.

By keenly confronting the enigmas that surround us, and by considering and analysing the observations that I have made, I ended up in the domain of mathematics. Although I am absolutely without training in the exact sciences, I often seem to have more in common with mathematicians than with my fellow artists.

– M.C. Escher (from To Infinity and Beyond, Eli Maor)

Another artist that uses op art in a contemporary way using algorithms/systems with a sense of depth in his work is the American Artist/programmer Dave Bollinger http://www.dataisnature.com/?p=364

While here in London I saw the work of Bridget Riley she was the celebrity Op Artist in the 1960's creating abstract geometric movement. She initially was making them in black and white but then moved to colour adding straight lines or waves creating an illusion of movement. This latest one is the art work I saw in the summer at The Royal Academy in London

The mid- 1980s Bridget Riley’s work move away from a build up of sensation and instead she went towards an art of pure visual sensation, treating form and colour as ‘ultimate identities’, as things in themselves. Units of colour were arranged according to principles of relation and chromatic interaction.

I have always been interested in the links between Op Art and the Bauhaus the Famous German school created by Walter Gropius and Frank Stella (originally Italian).

Frank Stella considered painting more as an object rather then a representation of something. With his asymmetrical irregular polygons he was exploring the tension between colour, the flat form of the canvas and optical effects of the two. The colours are stark and vibrant he moved the painting in away so to enter the viewers space.

Kenneth Noland circle and target paintings where one discovers that the edges of the canvases are as important as the centre. He used to stain the canvas with colours instead of using brushes I find this very interesting for my own work as I am not a keen user of brushes but also it emphasise the importance of the art work the actual piece instead of the artist I generally use a knife or a palette but I am definitely going to experiment with other methods. Colours are prominent in his work.

The last artist on my list today about Op Art  and his different uses, methods is the Japanese Artist  Yayoi Kusama. I have seen her work for the first time at the Tate Modern rooms filled  with obsessively repeated  colourful polka dots one is no longer looking at a painting but is part of an infinity of dots bursting with energy. I admire the fact that she keeps making her art work & doesn't stop even if she is in hospital. It must have been a real shock for her to move from liberal New York to conservative Japan I really do relate to the challenges of moving from one culture to another. I found that the exhibition at the Tate Modern was  well curated  as it had a good variety of her work on show.

This is one of her sculptural works I enjoy the physicality of the piece which is given by the repetitive use of phallic protrusions going in different directions made in monochrome colour.