The name of the artistic movement "op-art" is an abbreviated version of the phrase optical art - optical art. It is based on the use in art of optical illusions and features of a person’s visual perception.
The first experiments in the field of op-art were carried out at the end of the 19th century. Then they were not related to art, but were of the nature of a scientific experiment aimed at studying the characteristics of human vision. A professor from Germany, Thompson, managed to create the illusion of movement using static black and white circles.
The emergence of op art
Op art becomes art only in the second half of the 20th century. Its founder is Victor Vasarelli. Op art was widely popularized by the exhibition under the significant name "Sensitive Eye", which took place in 1965 in New York.
Creating their works, the masters of op-art turned not to feeling, but to the human mind. The fact is that the images created by them are formed not only and not so much on a canvas or a sheet of paper as in the viewer's head. Thanks to optical illusions, flat figures become voluminous and moving.
