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Who is a famous perception artist?
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One famous perception artist is Victor Vasarely. He is widely considered the grandfather of Op art, the term most often used to describe perception art. Decades after Vasarely created early examples of this work, the Op art movement emerged in the 1960s, mirroring the counterculture of the time in its embrace of visual trickery, graphic shapes and bright colors. Some notable Op artists include Josef Albers, Bridget Riley and Jesús Rafael Soto. On 1stDibs, find a selection of Op art.
1stDibs ExpertJanuary 27, 2025
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Shop for Op Art on 1stDibs
Broken Ice, Large Mid-20th Century Gouache, Op Art Cleveland School Artist
By Edwin Mieczkowski
Located in Beachwood, OH
Edwin Mieczkowski (American, 1929-2017)
Broken Ice, 1976
Gouache and pencil on paper
Signed, dated (Feb. 2, 1976) and titled lower right
27.5 x 37.75 inches
35 x 45 inches, framed
Edwin Mieczkowski, born in Pittsburgh, was a leader of geometric and perceptual abstraction during the latter part of the 20th century. Mieczkowski's work first came to prominence in "The Responsive Eye" exhibition, the nation's first major exhibition of perceptual art, held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1965.
Mieczkowski was also featured in the 1964 article in Timemagazine that first used the term "Op Art" to describe paintings that manipulated visual cues in order to reorder and excite viewers' perceptual responses.
With a complex aesthetic that over time has transcended mere tricks of optical art, Mieczkowski has spent nearly four decades producing geometrically paintings, drawings and sculptures, a genre of modern art that is known broadly as perceptual abstraction.
His output of static and dynamic forms create a body of work, still largely intact, that uses visually disorienting, meticulously arranged lines, dazzling kaleidoscopic colors, and alluring juxtapositions of hue and tone, to playfully and seductively present new challenges for the viewer's eyes. The desired result is an optical effect of perpetual motion, harmonics and rhythm. . . .
Along with Frank Hewitt and Ernst Benkert, Mieczkowski was a co-founder in 1959 of the Anonima* group that worked together in Cleveland and New York and declared itself free from the pressures of the art market and the pursuit of personal fame. Members of Anonima often left their works unsigned and vowed to shun the usual art market venues such as commercial galleries, biennials and competitions. Instead, they engaged in a rigorous, self-imposed program of painting exercises to explore the effects of geometry and color on visual perception.
Although Mieczkowski's work hung side-by-side in the MOMA "Responsive Eye" exhibition with such colleagues as Josef Albers, Victor Vasarely, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Carlos Cruz-Diaz, Ad Reinhardt and Bridget Riley, all of whom went on to considerable fame and fortune, Mieczkowski chose to eschew commercial exhibition and career promotion. Instead, he spent 39 years teaching at the Cleveland Institute of Art and quietly executing a number of public art commissions while independently pursuing his own intuitive explorations in geometric abstraction.
Mieczkowski pursued virtually no commercial sales of his work. Consequently, the body of work he left behind consists of hundreds of paintings, drawings and sculptures only recently viewed...
Category
1970s Op Art Figurative Paintings
Materials
Gouache, Pencil
Rear Window View, Purple Pastel Tones, Mauve Hue Abstract Diptych, Aurora Print
Located in Barcelona, ES
Cyd Fontaine (Lausanne, 1992) is a contemporary artist renowned for her captivating use of dreamy atmospheric gradients, which has helped her carve a distinctive niche in the world o...
Category
2010s Op Art Abstract Prints
Materials
Photographic Paper, C Print, Giclée, Archival Pigment
YAACOV AGAM - INFINITY TRANSPARENCY. Limited edition sculpture. Kinetic Op Art
By Yaacov Agam
Located in Madrid, Madrid
YAACOV AGAM - INFINITY TRANSPARENCY
Date of creation: 2017
Medium: Colored acrylic panels and wood
Edition: 45
Size: 63 x 14,4 x 12,6 cm
Condition: In mint conditions
Infinity Trans...
Category
2010s Op Art Abstract Sculptures
Materials
Wood, Acrylic Polymer
Victor Vasarely "Zebres 1" 1976 French Op Art Serigraph, Hand Signed & Numbered
Located in Miami, FL
VICTOR VASARELY – "ZEBRES 1"
⚜ Serigraph ⚜ Hand Signed and Numbered ⚜ Edition of 120
VASARELY’S ICONIC ZEBRAS
Created in 1976 and published by the Foundation Vasarely in an edition ...
Category
1970s Op Art Abstract Prints
Materials
Screen
Temple of Evening Reds, 1983 Acrylic OpArt by Cleveland School Artist
Located in Beachwood, OH
Richard Anuszkiewicz (American, 1930-2020)
Temple of Evening Reds, 1983
Acrylic on canvas
Signed verso
36 x 36 inches
36.75 x 36.75 inches, framed
Richard Anuszkiewicz was born in E...
Category
1980s Op Art Abstract Paintings
Materials
Acrylic
Victor Vasarely 1980s Optical Illusion Serigraph
Located in New York, NY
Victor Vasarely (Hungarian/French, 1906-1997)
Enigma, Four Blue Spheres
Serigraph
Sight: 25 3/4 x 25 3/4 in.
Framed: 34 1/3 x 33 1/2 x 1 in.
Numbered lower left: 74/125
Signed lower ...
Category
1980s Op Art Abstract Prints
Materials
Screen