OP ART

Op Art Part 1

When something plays tricks on your eyes it is called an Optical Illusion. Op Art is artwork that plays tricks on our eyes.

Op Art was an art movement which began in the 1960s. It was a time when artists were very interested in the idea of creating movement on a two dimensional surface by tricking the eye with a series of optical illusions.

“Op” for “Optical Illusion”

“The birth of Op Art began officially with an article in Time Magazine. In 1964, Time Magazine published an article featuring an art movement involving optical illusions. Since the artists focused on eye manipulation, Time Magazine coined this new movement “Op Art”.”

~Source Modern Masterworks

Artist M.C. Escher is famous for having created lots of different kinds of Op Art.

Bridget Riley is famous for creating Op Art that looks like it is moving. Sometimes it hurts your eyes to look at it for too long.

What to do:

Find out more about Op Art! Google some of the artists below and click on the images button to see more pictures by them. Save pictures of your two favorite optical illusions. Post them to our Teams class chat for everyone to see and tell us why you think they are so cool! Please post by Wednesday night. 

Important Artists:

• Riley, Bridget
• Stella, Frank
• Albers, Josef
• Poons, Lawrence
• Noland, Kenneth
• Vasarely, Victor
• Anuszkiewicz, Richard

Op Art Part 2

What You Need:

• white paper
• Pencil
• Something to shade or colour your picture with - crayon, markers, pencil crayons, pen, pencils etc.

What To Do:

Start by drawing a gently curved line across the paper.  Think rolling hill… not roller coaster!

Add 9 dots across the line.

They should be different lengths apart.

You need a dot close to the edges of your paper.

Start connecting the dots with bumps.

The lines from the dots close to the edge will go off the edge of the paper to an imaginary dot.

The lines will eventually go off the top and bottom of the paper .

Fill the whole paper.

Pick a group of colors you feel work well together (2 or 3).

Using pencils or colours, fill in the spaces. Press harder in the corners. As you get near the top of each bump, press lighter and lighter.

Continue until the work is complete and then share a picture to our Teams chat by Friday!

Examples used with the permission of Mrs. Brown of Mrs. Brown’s Art.