Editing Op art (section)

== Method of operation ==

=== Black-and-white and the figure-ground relationship ===
Op art is a perceptual experience related to how vision functions. It is a dynamic visual art that stems from a discordant [[figure–ground (perception)|figure-ground]] relationship that puts the two planes—foreground and background—in a tense and contradictory juxtaposition. Artists create op art in two primary ways. The first, best known method, is to create effects through pattern and line. Often these paintings are [[black and white]], or shades of gray (''[[grisaille]]'')—as in Bridget Riley's early paintings such as ''Current'' (1964), on the cover of ''The Responsive Eye'' catalog. Here, black and white wavy lines are close to one another on the canvas surface, creating a volatile figure-ground relationship. [[Getulio Alviani]] used aluminum surfaces, which he treated to create light patterns that change as the watcher moves (vibrating texture surfaces).  Another reaction that occurs is that the lines create after-images of certain colors due to how the retina receives and processes light. As [[Goethe]] demonstrates in his treatise ''[[Theory of Colours]]'', at the edge where light and dark meet, color arises because lightness and darkness are the two central properties in the creation of color.{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}}

=== Color ===
Beginning in 1965 [[Bridget Riley]] began to produce color-based op art;<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JFuXfLYqQVsC&q=op+art&pg=RA1-PA147|title=After Modern Art 1945-2000|first=David|last=Hopkins|date=September 14, 2000|publisher=OUP Oxford|page=147|isbn=9780192842343|access-date=November 5, 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref> however, other artists, such as [[Julian Stanczak]] and [[Richard Anuszkiewicz]], were always interested in making color the primary focus of their work.<ref>See ''Color Function Painting: The Art of Josef Albers, Julian Stanczak, and Richard Anuszkiewicz'', Wake Forest University, reprinted 2002.</ref> [[Josef Albers]] taught these two primary practitioners of the "Color Function" school at [[Yale]] in the 1950s. Often, colorist work is dominated by the same concerns of figure-ground movement, but they have the added element of contrasting colors that produce different effects on the eye.  For instance, in Anuszkiewicz's "temple" paintings, the juxtaposition of two highly contrasting colors provokes a sense of depth in illusionistic three-dimensional space so that it appears as if the architectural shape is invading the viewer's space.

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File:Intrinsic-Harmony.jpg|''Intrinsic Harmony'' by Richard Anuszkiewicz, 1965
File:Victor Vasarely Kezdi-Ga 1970 Screenprint in colors 20×20in Edition of 250.jpg|[[Victor Vasarely]], Kezdi-Ga, 1970, Serigraph, Edition of 250, 20 × 20 in
File:ככר_דיזנגוף_-_מזרקת_יעקב_אגם.jpg|The [[Fire and Water Fountain]] by [[Yaacov Agam]], [[Dizengoff Square]] in Tel Aviv, Israel 1986. Example of both op art and [[kinetic art]].
</gallery>