Op Art

Op Art

The effects created by op art ranged from the subtle, to the disturbing and disorienting.

Op painting used a framework of purely geometric forms as the basis for its effects and also drew on colour theory and the physiology and psychology of perception. Leading figures were Bridget Riley, Jesus Rafael Soto, and Victor Vasarely. Vasarely was one of the originators of op art. Soto’s work often involves mobile elements and points up the close connection between kinetic and op art.

 

Bridget Riley

Hesitate is one of a group of black and white paintings made by Riley in 1964 in which the titles imply emotional tension, for example Disturbance, Chill, Loss and Pause. The shapes were drawn first using a compass, and with templates for the larger ellipses; the smaller ones were drawn freehand. The shades of grey were judged by eye. Pause, 1964 (private collection) is similar in design to Hesitate, but with the ellipses forming a vertical line and the changes of tone reversed. Pause itself develops an idea in an earlier painting Movement in Squares, 1961 (Arts Council Collection), but with the rectangles replaced by ellipses and circles, and with the addition of the changes of tone.

 

Late Morning- In 1967 Riley began to use pure colour in her paintings. She adopted a vertical stripe format to act as a neutral structure in which the rhythms of chromatic variation would bring the painting alive. Choosing careful sequences of colours, Riley explores the subtle effects of each upon the next. In Late Morning she was particularly interested in the effects of the warm and cold tones on white. This interaction creates an impression of pale yellow light radiating from the centre of the canvas.

 

Fall- ‘I try to organise a field of visual energy which accumulates until it reaches maximum tension’, Riley said of this work. From 1961 to 1964 she worked with the contrast of black and white, occasionally introducing tonal scales of grey. In Fall, a single perpendicular curve is repeated to create a field of varying optical frequencies. Though in the upper part a gentle relaxed swing prevails, the curve is rapidly compressed towards the bottom of the painting. The composition verges on the edge of disintegration without the structure ever breaking.