Optic Nerve: Perceptual Art of the 1960s

by Joe Houston, Dave Hickey (Introduction)

The abstract art movement Op art came to international attention in the mid-1960s, an era of global social and technological change. The movement, which placed emphasis on viewer perception by exploring optical effects in painting, sculpture and light installation, quickly gained in popularity but met with considerable criticism. This important book, published to accompany the first major Op art exhibition by an American museum in twenty-five years, examines the development of the movement, its cultural context and its widespread impact on advertising, fashion and film-making. Featuring visually stunning works by such key figures as Josef Albers, Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely, Optic Nerve offers a timely reappraisal of this highly influential movement. The first comprehensive survey of Op art to be published for more than thirty years
Features over 200 spectacular images, including the most significant works of this revolutionary artistic movement
Will appeal to anyone interested in modern painting and sculpture

Genres: Art, Art Design

208 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2007

Reviews

[Manik Sukoco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Optic Nerve is a superb, vivid history of a major movement in art, richly illustrated with large color photographs that will amaze, educate, and bring wonder to your life. So rooted in optic neuroscience, cognition, and perceptive psychology, Op Art has also a philosophical underpinning. It is not all about optical illusions of spatial relationships and colored afterimages or virtual shadings from intense contrasting hues. Indeed, as the book demonstrates, the artistic examination of color and line relationships goes back to the early 19th century. But it all came together in the zeitgeist of the 1960's cultural revolution, when studies of mind and perception and personal explorations of alternative realities became a hallmark. While Escher's playful drawings and Magritte's surrealism were popular among hippies, enhanced by ultra-violet light and phosphorescent paint reproductions, academics were drawn more toward Op Art artists, whose brief biosketches are provided at the end of the book. Here, Op Art expanded from the Bauhus lessons of Klee and Kandinsky. With some 250 illustrations, we examine the wide variety of forms of this movement and see how it entered mainstream commerce. As an artist myself who has dabbled in illusions as part of my explorations, I found this book to be both beautiful and validating. It is a good read too.

[Dennis Littrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Op Art retrospective

The publication of “Optic Nerve” was designed to coincide with the exhibition of Op Art at the Columbia Museum of Art in Columbus, Ohio last year. As such it is a retrospective on a curious cultural phenomenon that those of us who came of age in the sixties remember well. It was a time of irreverence in many ways as many Americans protested against the war in Vietnam and against racial inequality at home. Op Art, in its kinship with Pop Art, represented an anti-establishment movement in the art world that was not entirely welcome. With the opening of “The Responsive Eye” exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1965, Op Art came of age. The response of the public was something close to sensational, although the critics were not so thrilled. Almost immediately artifacts of culture, from the interiors of buildings to the covers of magazines, to rock band t-shirts, to advertisements, even to women’s dresses, became emblazoned with examples of optic art, or perhaps more properly, “perceptual abstraction.”

In a sense Op Art is anti-art in that the artist, instead of helping the viewer to make sense of the painting (which is of course an illusion, as all painting is an illusion), does exactly the opposite by attempting to confuse the eye, and ultimately the mind of the viewer. Instead of expression, in Op Art we have sensation. Dave Hickey, who wrote the introductory chapter entitled “Trying to See What We Can Never Know” believes that “the ramifications of psychedelic drugs, sexual liberation, generational autonomy, optical art, and digital culture have each contributed to a contemporary model of consciousness conceived as a ‘limited-capacity system.’” (p. 11) In other words, Op Art reminds us that there is lot going on in our heads that we know nothing about. Considering the way our eyes and our mind work together to make sense of the world, this is abundantly true. Op Art seeks to trick the eyes and the mind in such a way as to bring this truth to our consciousness.

While Op Art has its roots in abstract expressionism, and is allied to Pop Art, minimalism, and kinetic art, it differs in many ways. Pop Art emphasizes the mundane aspects of our culture with an eye to satire or at least revelation; but Op Art is only interested in the play between the eye and the mind. Op Art differs from Minimal Art in that it does not emphasize form, and is in fact anti-form. Joe Houston, who wrote the text that accompanies the artwork, says that Op Art differs from kinetic art in that “Op achieved its dynamic impact with potentials, not actual, movement, implied primarily in two dimensions.” (p. 19)

There are photos of 250 paintings in the book in full color (or black and white as the case may be!) by many artists including the most well known in the movement, including Bridget Riley, Victor Vasarely, Josef Albers, Karl Benjamin, etc., as well as reproductions of some works by allied or precursor artists including Andy Warhol, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and even Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Additionally artwork from the covers of Time and Life magazines from the 1960s, photos of women in Op Art dresses, photos of artists, and of the interiors of exhibition halls recall the sixties milieu when Op Art was in full flower—uh, as it were.

As is true with most forms, a true appreciation of the Op paintings presented here cannot be achieved by seeing them in the pages of a book at less--sometimes considerably less--than actual size. Furthermore, the angle at which a painting is viewed and the ambient lighting, can affect the viewer’s experience. As I was reading the text on page 19, the two circles, one black and the other blue, of Alexander Liberman’s “Continuous on Red” began to flash back and forth distractingly as my eyes inadvertently viewed them from the side. Viewing the painting head on did have this affect. I suspect that in a gallery, as one walks away from “Continuous on Red” the painting will call the viewer back.

A nice feature of the book is “Manifestos” from various artists in which they express what Op is all about from their unique perspective. Also interesting are the biographies of the artists (some with photos of the artist) beginning on page 175. There is a general bibliography and mentions of works specific to individual artists.

All in all this is an excellent and very attractive book. I have just one small complaint. I wish that more text about the specific paintings had been included. I would like to have read some explanation of what might have been the artist’s intent, or something about the effect the artist was trying to achieve in a particular work.

For readers interested in the optical illusions that inspired Op Art, I recommend The Great Book of Optical Illusions (2002) by Al Seckel. See my review at Amazon.

--Dennis Littrell, author of the mystery novel, “Teddy and Teri”

[Jamil · Rating 3 out of 5]

just flipped through this one as it caught my eye (ba-dum!) at the branch the other day. it may be heresy/betray a lack of culture on my part, but, i gotta say these images would make a great calendar.

[Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intro by Dave Hickey!