Mini-Activity V Title: Op Art Grade Level: 6

Theme Concepts: Optical illusions Op Art is work that actively affects the viewer's perception using the creation of effects through the use of pattern and line. Using repetition of simple forms and colors to create vibrating effects, moir patterns, foreground-background confusion, an exaggerated sense of depth, and other visual effects. When the viewer looks at them, the impression is given of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibration, patterns, or alternatively, of swelling or warping. Victor Vasarely pioneered the movement with his 1938 painting Zebra. Aesthetics, Art Criticism, Art History Op Art made its appearance in the United States and Europe in the late 1950s. Op Art, also called Optical Art, was popular along side Pop Art. It is a dynamic visual art, stemming from a discordant figure-ground relationship that causes the two planes to be in a tense and contradictory juxtaposition. After (and because of) a major 1965 exhibition of Op Art entitled The Responsive Eye, the public became enraptured with the movement. As a result, one began to see Op Art showing up everywhere: in print and television advertising, as LP album art and as a fashion motif in clothing and interior decoration.

Exhibit Catalog Cover Show You Tube Video The Responsive Eye Part I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSVQqJo0Pmk Branching from the geometric abstraction movement, Op Art includes paintings concerned with surface kinetics. It was a movement which exploits the fallibility of the eye through the use of optical illusions. The viewer gets the impression of movement by flashing and vibration, or alternatively of swelling or warping. Two techniques used to achieve this effect are perspective illusion and chromatic tension. Artists used colors, lines, and shapes repetitive and simple ways to create perceived movement and to trick the viewer's eye. Many of first, the better known pieces were made in only black and white. (1) Vasarely found his own style (op art). The overlapping development are named after their geographical heritage. Denfert refers to the works influenced by the white tiled walls of the Paris Mini-Activity V 1

Denfert - Rochereau metro station. Ellipsoid pebbles and shells found during a vacation in 1947 at the Breton coast at Belle le inspired him to the Belles-Isles works. Since 1948, Vasarely usually spent his summer months in Gordes in Provence-Alpes-Cte d'Azur. There, the cubic houses led him to the composition of the group of works labelled Gordes/Cristal. He worked on the problem of empty and filled spaces on a flat surface as well as the stereoscopic view. (2) Bridget Riley (1931) is a well-known British artist celebrated since the mid-1960s for her distinctive, optically vibrant paintings, called Op Art. She explores optical phenomena and juxtaposes color either by using a chromatic technique of identifiable hues or by selecting achromatic colors (black, white or gray). In doing so, her work appears to flicker, pulsate and move, encouraging the viewers visual tension. Rileys vibrant optical pattern paintings, which she painted in the 1960s, were hugely popular and become a hallmark of the period. As your eyes explore the picture to the left, can you continue to see momentary afterimages (white dots) that cause a slight flickering effect? (3) Joseph Albers' series Homage to the Square is an example of his disciplined approach to composition and color theory. Towards the end of his career he and his wife established the Joseph and Anni Albers foundation in an effort to continue sharing and promoting the theory that he had established during his career. His style and work represent a bridge between the European art of the Bauhaus and Constructivists and the new American Art that emerged in the 1950s and 60s. He was a teacher and an artist his entire career, until his death in 1976 at the age of 88. Art Production Concept(s): Creation of effects through the use of pattern and line. Practice with pressure control. Dynamic use of color theory, color schemes, i.e., analogous. Contrasting colors have different effects on the eye, Interaction of Color, how color relationships work. Composition using symmetry, and asymmetrical balance. Teaching Strategies Introduction Demonstration Questioning Video Creative and Critical Behaviors Students will Enhance Use creativity and ingenuity to manipulate tools Heavily relies upon intuition and feeling Develop perceptual experience related to how vision functions. NJCCCS (Standards and Indicators/One Visual Arts & One Non-Art) Visual Art Mini-Activity V 2

4.2.2 B. Transforming Shapes 1. Use simple shapes to make designs, patterns, and pictures. 2. Combine and subdivide simple shapes to make other shapes. Social Studies 6.1.4. D. History, Culture, and Perspectives Trace how the American identity evolved over time. Materials and Supplies Paper Colored Pencils Black Sharpies Art Making Steps 1. Draw a curvy line across your paper. Think rolling hill...not roller coaster.

2. Make about 8 dots, unevenly spaced, on your line. There should be a dot at relatively close to the edges of your paper. They should be spaced apart at different lengths.

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3. Next, connect the dots with curved lines. The lines from the dots close to the edge at each end should go off the edge of the paper to an imaginary dot, rather than curve back down to the line. You cannot cross over any lines. However, you can share a line as you begin going up and out. The lines should go off the edge of the paper as you extend outwards. Some sections may be pinched off as other sections grow larger.

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4. Then, from each of these curved lines, build up a column of more curved lines (or rings), stacked on top of each other. Build one complete column at a time across the top half of your paper. If your columns start to slant or get smaller or larger, all the better.

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It is easiest to develop every other one, and then connect the spaces in between. When you fill in these in-between columns, make sure that each successive ring that you add connects at its ends to the ring below it. The lines should go off the edge of the paper as you extend outwards. Some sections may be pinched off as other sections grow larger.

5. When the top half of your paper is finished, turn your paper around repeating steps 3 and 4 until the entire paper is filled, and all the columns are connected.

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6. Choose a color scheme: Josef Albers, analogous, triadic, complementary, etc. Make the color darker in the corners by pressing harder. As you move towards the center, ease the pressure allowing the color get lighter and lighter, creating a 3-D look.

7. This is a completed example. Mini-Activity V 7

Aesthetics Steps/Questions How does it make you feel? How did the use of line in the piece effect your emotions? How did the use of color in the piece effect your emotions? What would you call the column-like things in these drawings? Is it beautiful? Is it ugly? Is this art? Should this art be in a museum? How do you feel about your finished piece? Pick one of your favorite aspects of your piece and why.

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References / Sources New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/03/arts/design/mon-levinson-88-op-artsculptor-dies.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op_art www.escapeintolife.com/artist-watch/bridget-riley/ www.designishistory.com/1940/joseph-albers http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/bridget-riley/paintings/slideshow http://arthistory.about.com/cs/arthistory10one/a/op_art.htm http://www2.palomar.edu/users/mhudelson/StudyGuides/20thCentLate_WA.html MOMA Press Release for The Responsive Eye https://www.moma.org/learn/resources/press_archives/1960s/1965 http://www.coolhunting.com/culture/moma-1965-the-r.php The Responsive Eye (1966,) 30 min - Documentary | Short, Director: Brian De Palma. http://www.artfagcity.com/2012/07/10/best-link-ever-mike-wallace-on-the-responsive-eye/ Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSVQqJo0Pmk Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHoCHD3CMFM Part 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onj5Quj2cu8

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Victor Vasarely, Bora III, 1964

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Victor Vasarely, Zebra, 1937

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Victor Vasarely, Zebra 2

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Bridget Riley, Movement in Squares, 1961.

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Bridget Riley, Descending, 1965

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Mon Levinson, Positive Moving Planes IV, mixed-media construction 1965

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Bob Dylan Poster by Milton Glaser

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1960s Album Cover

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Teacher Sample Mini-Activity V 18