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Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

OP ART STYLE

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.

Spreading across Europe and the Americas, the style — whose name is short for “optical art” — influenced advertising, fashion and interior design before fading in the early ’70s.

Op art remained significant, however, for artists and scientists interested in the nature of perception. And today, it’s seeing a resurgence of interest from collectors and interior designers.

Op artists played with the principles of perception, manipulating line, shape, patterns and color to create the illusion of depth and movement. They drew on and evolved methods developed by past movements, from Impressionism to Abstract Expressionism, to produce intense visual experiences.

All the Op artists shared a focus on the gap between what is and what we perceive. Each, however, had a distinct approach to the issue and a unique visual style.

On 1stDibs, find a collection of Op art that includes works by Josef Albers, Bridget Riley, Jesús Rafael Soto and more.

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Style: Op Art
Near and Far Acuity, Signed Mid Century Modern Op Art painting, historic exhibit
Located in New York, NY
Richard Anuszkiewicz Near and Far Acuity, 1957 Gouache and watercolor painting on board Hand signed and dated 1957 by Richard Anuszkiewicz on the right front Frame included Anuszkie...
Category

Mid-20th Century Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media, Watercolor, Gouache

Owl, Circa 1970 - Op Art-Inspired Geometric Composition
Located in Firenze, IT
Owl, Circa 1970 - Op Art-Inspired Geometric Composition Date: Approximately 1970 Medium: Gouache on cardboard with embossed stamp Dimensions: H 64 cm x W 49 cm approx. A stylized o...
Category

Late 20th Century Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Illustration Board, Cardboard

Oscillation
Located in Fairlawn, OH
11 color screen print Signed, dated, titled and numberedin pencil Edition: 150 (9/150) Provenance: Estate of the Artist By Decent
Category

1980s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Screen

Brutalist Op Art Abstract Charcoal Drawing by Dordevic Miodrag
Located in Atlanta, GA
Serbian artist Dordevic (or Djordjevic) Miodrag (1936 -), known as "Miodrag," designed this stunning abstract drawing. This work is a charcoal on paper depicting a brutalist abstract...
Category

1960s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Charcoal

3D Render Mountain Landscape, Handmade Cyanotype in Deep Blue Tones, Minimal
Located in Barcelona, ES
This is an exclusive handprinted limited edition cyanotype. Contemporary linear cyanotype showing a 3D mountain terrain. Details: + Title: 3D Render Mountain + Year: 2021 + Edition ...
Category

2010s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

C Print, Lithograph, Rag Paper

Geometric Color Grid - Op Art Composition
Located in Soquel, CA
Highly precise op-art composition by an unknown artist. A grid of colored squares has been created with various colors, divided by occasional diagonal lines that give the feel of ove...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Untitled VI, OP Art Geometric Abstract Acrylic Painting on Paper by David Roth
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: David Roth, American (1942 - ) Title: Untitled VI Year: 1974 Medium: Acrylic Painting on Arches Paper, signed and dated Image Size: 15.5 x 45.5 inches Size: 22.5 in. x 53.5 i...
Category

1970s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Untitled V, Op Art Abstract Geometric Pencil Drawing David Roth
Located in Long Island City, NY
This colored pencil drawing was created by American artist David Roth. Roth's images are proportioned according to a strict mathematical formula - the pictures are composed according...
Category

1970s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Color Pencil

Oscar Reutersvard Original Op Art Pen, Ink & Watercolor Drawing C.1990
Located in San Francisco, CA
Oscar Reutersvard Original Op Art Pen, Ink & Watercolor Drawing C.1990 Dimensions 8" wide x 11" high Housed in a simple frame - Dimensions 15" wide...
Category

Late 20th Century Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Ink, Watercolor

Untitled
By John Kalymnios
Located in White Plains, NY
'Untitled' by John Kalymnios, 1999. Pantone ink on paper, 78.5 x 51.25 in. (framed). This geometric op art drawing features bands of concentric circles with the full spectrum colors ...
Category

1990s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Ink, Archival Paper

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My 80's Heart "Token 7" 2019, gouache, acrylic, graphite, panel, blue, orange
Located in Jersey City, NJ
My 80's Heart "Token 7" 2019, gouache, acrylic, graphite, panel, blue, wood, orange
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2010s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

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Acrylic, Gouache, Panel, Wood Panel, Illustration Board, Graphite

My 80's Heart "Token 5" 2019, gouache, acrylic, graphite, panel, purple, green
Located in Jersey City, NJ
My 80's Hart "Token 5" 2019, gouache, acrylic, graphite, panel, purple, green, blue
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2010s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

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Acrylic, Gouache, Panel, Wood Panel, Graphite

Flower in Bowl - Abstract Cool Tone Botanical Mixed Media Painting on Paper
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Krisanne Souter weaves together elements of nature and ancient feminine archetypes, such as the Mother and the Mystic. Botanical themes, playful elements, and unexpected surprises ar...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Ink, Acrylic, Watercolor, Color Pencil

Italian Abstract Work on Paper Color Field Non-Objective European Mid-Century
Located in New York, NY
Italian Modern Abstract Work on Paper Color Field Non-Objective European Mid-Century - "Gonage" Dorazio completed "Gonage" in 1949 when just after the artist had been awarded a stipend by the French government and admission to the Academy Beaux Arts. There he met George Braque who became great friends but also an influence on Dorazio, of which "Gonage" is a living testament. "Gonage" actual size of the drawing measures 12 x 9 1/2 inches. It is signed on the lower right. The work is affixed to a 19 x 15 inch board which includes the artist's signature and date. There is a torn table on the lower left entitling the piece "Gonage". Provenance follows this piece as a gift in 1950 to the artist-colleague Luigi Lucioni, who then gifted it in 1955 to his friend, the uncle of the current owner who has owned the work since 1988. Bio Born in Italy, Piero Dorazio studied architecture in Rome. At the same time his first abstract works were executed. In 1947 he received a scholarship from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Paris, where he contacted Modern artists, who lived in Paris. He founded the galleries "Age d'Or" in Florence and Rome to represent avant-garde arts in Italy. During a one year stay in the USA he got acquainted with leading artists of Abstract Expressionism such as Marc Rothko...
Category

1940s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

FLOWERS - Exhibited in 1997 Smithsonian Monotype Exhibition
Located in Santa Monica, CA
KARL YENS (1868 – 1945) (FLOWERS) 1919 Color monotype signed, dated and annotated: “monotype 1919.” 17 ½” x 11 ½” Monotypes are unique works of art that fall between printmaking a...
Category

1810s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Monotype

Untitled (Modern Black Charcoal & Gray Abstract Still Life Drawing on Paper)
Located in Hudson, NY
18 x 14 inch drawing on 20 x 16 inch Aquarelle Arches Paper 24 x 20 x .5 inches framed Thin profile black metal frame, 8 ply white mat Ralph Stout's works on paper reveal a drau...
Category

Early 2000s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Archival Paper, Charcoal

Untitled, from the Lehman Brothers Art Collection unique signed framed monotype
Located in New York, NY
Andrea Belag Untitled, from the Lehman Brothers Art Collection, 2003 Watercolor monotype on paper Pencil signed and dated on the front Framed Gorgeous ...
Category

Early 2000s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Monotype, Graphite

Traces – Contemporary Abstract Black Artwork on Paper by Marilina Marchica
Located in Agrigento, AG
Traces (2023) is a large-scale original work on paper (75x110 cm) by Italian artist Marilina Marchica, created with pure mineral oxides on 300 gr Canson paper. The deep, atmospheric ...
Category

2010s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Charcoal

Nature Morte
Located in Belgrade, MT
This colorful lithograph is part of my private collection. It is a limited edition , 1 print available, signed and numbered 25/150. It is in very good condition. Vibrant and colorful.
Category

Mid-20th Century Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Lithograph

Swimming jellyfish, fractal painting, naturalistic trompe l'oeil, water animals
Located in Carballo, ES
Black Neoexpressionist Painting. This is an original artwork realized by TUSET in 2018. We can frame it in natural wood or black on request. The dimensions of the painting are 65 x ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Ink, Handmade Paper

North Shore - colourful, impressionist, landscape, limited edition lithograph
Located in Bloomfield, ON
When the world thinks about the famous Group of Seven, this is likely the kind of image they recall—the quiet majesty of the Canadian wilderness. This lithograph by one of its youngest members, Alfred Joseph Casson is one of many classic landscapes he painted of the north—mountains, lakes, bare trees in the foreground rendered in his favoured bright palette of autumn colours—red, yellow, orange, a touch of green, and deep blue lakes against a cloudy white sky. Casson was an avid canoeist and spent many hours camping and drawing in northern Ontario often alongside fellow members of the Group. “I had to develop my own style. I began to dig out places of my own...” A. J. Casson He moved on to two commercial art firms in Toronto where he worked as an assistant to the artist Franklin Carmichael, one of the founding members of the renowned Group of Seven, (A group of Canadian landscape painters that included Tom Thomson, Lawren Harris and A. Y. Jackson.). Carmichael encouraged him to sketch and paint on his own. Casson was invited to join the Group of Seven in the 1920’s with whom he painted for years. Following their demise, he formed the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour...
Category

1990s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Lithograph

Eight of Hearts mixed media silkscreen hand applied acrylic, signed unique Frame
Located in New York, NY
Robert Petersen Eight of Hearts, 1989 Mixed media silkscreen with hand applied acrylic on paper with deckled edges Hand signed, numbered 6/21, dated, and inscribed on the front Uniqu...
Category

1980s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Pencil, Graphite, Screen, Mixed Media

Previously Available Items
Agam Original Marker Drawing Colorful Spirals Hand Signed Israeli Kinetic Op Art
Located in Surfside, FL
Yaacov Agam, Israeli (b. 1928) Hand signed and dated This is a great example of bold, graphic, mod design. Along with Reuven Rubin and Menashe Kadishman he is among Israel's best kn...
Category

1990s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Archival Paper, Permanent Marker

Geometric Composition (Minimalism, Constructivism)
By Hannes Forster
Located in Kansas City, MO
Hannes Forster Geometric Composition (Minimalism, Constructivism) Medium: Graphite Drawing Unique Year: 1991 Size: 11.7 × 8.2 inches Signed and dated by hand COA Provided Hannes Forster (* 1955 in Tuttlingen ) is a German artist. Forster graduated in 1979 from the College of Arts Berlin , where he was one of Herbert Kaufmann...
Category

1990s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

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Graphite

Op Art drawings and watercolor paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Op Art drawings and watercolor paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add drawings and watercolor paintings created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, pink and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Cheolyu Kim, David Roth, Roy Ahlgren, and John Kalymnios. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Paper and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Op Art drawings and watercolor paintings, so small editions measuring 11.25 inches across are also available. Prices for drawings and watercolor paintings made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $450 and tops out at $35,000, while the average work sells for $2,000.

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