Op Art

Op art is the abbreviation for the term optical art. This refers to paintings and sculptures that explore illusions or optical effects. This movement originated in the early 1960s. The optical illusion in op art was achieved through the manipulation of shapes and colours.

While op art is related to other forms of abstract art such as constructivism and futurism, op artists purposefully manipulated the formal relationships between colours and shapes to evoke perceptual illusions in the vision of the viewer. The simple forms that op artists used to create these visual effects included parallel lines, checkerboard patterns and concentric circles along with the juxtaposition of complementary colours.

This book cover was designed in 1969 by op artist and graphic designer Toshihiro Katayama. This design uses the two major forms used by op artists to create visual illusion. It uses layered concentric circles and complementary colours to create the illusion that the circles are three dimensional shapes and where the different colours overlap there is also a sense of movement.

This book cover design is from 1965. While the colours used in this design are not complementary they are still in keeping with the op art style. This design makes use of parallel lines running at different angles across the page to create the illusion of movement and depth.

SOURCES:
MOMA, OP ART, https://www.moma.org/collection/details.php?theme_id=10139
ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, OP ART, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/429533/Op-art

IMAGES:
INFORMATION, MECHANISM AND MEANING, http://bookworship.com/index.php?s=mit+press&paged=2
ESSAYS IN EXISTENTIALISM, http://bookworship.com/?p=1878