After Image: Op Art of the 1960s
Opens March 8, 2007
Op Art, also known as “optical art,” refers to the work of an international group of abstract painters in the early 1960s who utilized parallel lines, concentric circles and electric colors to create works of art that result in visual effects, such as afterimages. The primary sensual experience of Op owes much to the diverse arenas of mathematics, music, optics, psychology and physiology, providing appeal across many disciplines. The art of the period is now emblematic of the technological, social and sexual revolutions in an era of global cultural transition. Op Art’s greatest celebrity came in 1965 when the Museum of Modern Art in New York held an exhibition entitled The Responsive Eye. Today Op Art is enjoying a resurgence of interest from both artists and the general public.
The Jacobson Howard Gallery presents key works between the years of 1960 and 1970 by a core group of innovative artists. Artists include Yaacov Agam, Joseph Albers, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Hannes Beckmann, Fletcher Benton, Karl Benjamin, Francis Celentano, Benjamin Cunningham, Gene Davis, Jose de Rivera, Julio Le Parc, Alexander Liberman, François Morellet, Kenneth Noland, Larry Poons, Bridget Riley, Julian Stanczak, Frank Stella and Victor Vasarely. An illustrated brochure, with essay by Robert S Mattison, Marshall R Metzgar Professor of Art History, Lafayette College will be available.
After Image: Op Art of the 1960s runs concurrently with the following museum exhibitions: Optic Nerve: Perceptual Art of the 1960s, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH, curator Joseph Houston; Op Art Revisited: Selections from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, curator Holly E. Hughes, traveling to New York State Museum, Albany, NY and the San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA; The Optical Edge, Pratt Institute, Manhattan Gallery, New York, curator Robert Morgan.