Hi Y'all! Allow me to introduce myself...

Hi students, and welcome to my art class! My name is Beth Ritter-Perry and I am your instructor this year. I have been teaching here at Townview for about...10 years now, and I have been teaching for about 26 years total. I've taught grades K-12 within the Dallas public schools and as an assistant and adjunct professor of art in instutions of higher education in Maryland, California and Texas. I am very passionate about the visual arts and the role that creativity plays in the development and well-being of the whole person, and I enjoy watching the transformations that take place with my students as they learn and grow creatively and personally. I look forward to working with you all this year.

Optical Art- Y'all are gonna LOVE this!





WHEEEEEEEE!   I love this stuff.

Yeah, you have probably noticed that I tend to say that about everything.  Oh well.

Anyway, Optical Art, more popularly known as Op Art was an artistic movement which began in the 1950's in Britain and eventually made it to the United States.  By many accounts it  peaked in popularity between about 1965-1968.  Despite its brief lifespan as an artistic movement, we are still feeling its aftershocks in the contemporary works of artists such as Gerald Laing and in video games and puzzles (see http://fliiby.com/file/814231/br7isq3m1d.html ) or go to  www.op-art.co.uk  and check out the CRAZY animation http://www.op-art.co.uk/op-art-gallery/op-art-animation/nov-21-davidope.html .  Fashion in the 1960's and beyond was also influenced by Op Art.  Contemporary textile designers such as Helen Owen and designer Eley Kishimoto are also active in keeping the Op Art tradition alive and well.


Bridget Riley, Fragment 5/8

So what is Op Art?  You have seen and experienced it sometime in your lives. 
 According to wwar.com,

(http://wwar.com/masters/movements/op_art.html)
"Op Art relies on optical illusions and is sometimes called optical art or retinal art. Op painters and sculptors used geometric designs in order to create feelings of movement or vibration, sometimes in vibrant colors and other times in simply black and white. The movement had its origins in the work of Victor Vasarely, who created tessellations and work with shocking perspectives. It also developed from the Abstract Expressionist movement that discredited the importance of subject matter. The term was coined in 1964 by Time magazine. A major Op Art exhibit in 1965, titled “The Responsive Eye,” caught the public interest. As a result, the style began appearing in print, television, advertising, album art, fashion, and interior decorating. Despite Op Art’s popularity, it never became a full-fledged mass movement of modern art like Pop Art. Op Art’s primary goal was to fool the eye. Works were composed to create the illusion of movement, although all Op Art pieces were flat and two-dimensional. Based on geometry, Op Art is almost completely non-representational. The color, line, and shapes were chosen for the purposes of illusion and not to evoke any emotion or mood. Colors and perspective and chosen carefully to achieve the desired effect, and both positive and negative spaces are of equal importance in the composition. "
 

Yaacov Agam

Whew!  That's a lot to digest on the surface, but once you have experienced a few Op Art images, it all falls together and you will have a few questions of your own.  To some of you, these images might not be a big deal because you have grown up with Photoshop and similar programs which will allow you to create imagery such as this.  But when you consider that when Hungarian artist Viktor Vasarely started exploring bold, graphic images that were based on geometry and color back in the 1930's there were no computers...just pencils, rulers and the artist's brain to calculate and create.  The same is true for Bridget Riley, the British artist whose name is synonymous with this movement.  She was active in the '60s and is still presenting new works.  These artists had to do it all from scratch. 
 
Here are a few websites that are contemporary examples of op art using digital technology.  They are crazy...and their creators proudly post the disclaimer that "looking at these images may make you sick.". A bit dramatic, but they are difficult to gaze upon for more than a few seconds, so gaze at your own risk LOL. 
 
http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/opart-e.html
 

OK.  So here is a little EXTRA CREDIT tutorial to get you going with this Op Art thing to get your
feet wet.  It will only take you a few minutes to get it done.  You will need a piece of printer paper, a ruler and a pencil or pen.  I found it at
http://library.thinkquest.org/6065/tech_ok.htm
Bring it to class with on October 20 (A day) or 21 (B day) for full credit.   I will collect them at the end of class.  You may submit it after the due date for 25 point reduction.

This assignment is worth 100 points.

Op - Art: Techniques

Lines that Move

For this drawing you will need the following supplies: 
a blank sheet of paper, a ruler, and a sharp pencil.
Click on each step to see what it should look like. 
Remember to click on back to return.

Step 1.  In the center of the page, draw a 4 inch
vertical (up and down) line. 
Now measure 1 inch and make a small mark. 
Now draw a 4 inch horizontal line (side to side)
with one inch on each side of the vertical line.  
Step 2.  Make a small mark at each 1/4 inch
measurement
across the length of each line starting where
the lines cross.
Step 3.  From the top of the vertical line and
going to the left,
draw a straight line down to the mark closest
to the center on the horizontal line.
Step 4.  Move down the vertical (up and down)
line to the next mark. 
 and draw a line to the second mark moving
away from the
vertical line.  Continue moving down the
marks until
the entire left side is connected.
Step 5.  Follow this process for the other
 three sides of the drawing.