Op Art

In October 1964, an article appeared in Time Magazine coining the phrase 'Optical Art' for the first time. Op Art was a short-lived but important development in art whose main protagonists were arguably Maurits Cornelis Escher and Victor Vasarely albeit many years before this date and before the Op Art label was hung on these works. The paintings employed a framework of purely geometric and curvilinear shapes as the foundation for its effects and also drew on colour theory and the composition and psychology of perception. Effects would vary from the restrained to the disconcerting and disorienting. The movements leading figures were Yaacov Agam, Patrick Hughes, Bridget Riley and Jesus Raphael Soto. Soto's work often involves mobile elements and points to the close link between Kinetic and Op Art. Op Art had a brief short-lived revival in the 1980’s through artists such as Philip Taaffe and Peter Schuyff.