Skip to main content

Op Art

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.

to
3
3
3
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
2
3
3
5
155
86
47
42
3
Style: Op Art
Artist: Todd Smith
Square Variables VI
Located in Surfside, FL
Early graphic work by the photographer Todd Smith during his period at Pratt Institute in the early 1970s. Edition of 250, unsigned and unnumbered, as issued.
Category

1970s Op Art

Materials

Lithograph

Square Variables XI
Located in Surfside, FL
Early graphic work by the photographer Todd Smith during his period at Pratt Institute in the early 1970s. Edition of 250, unsigned and unnumbered, as issued.
Category

1970s Op Art

Materials

Lithograph

Square Variables IX
Located in Surfside, FL
Early graphic work by the photographer Todd Smith during his period at Pratt Institute in the early 1970s. Edition of 250, unsigned and unnumbered, as issued.
Category

1970s Op Art

Materials

Lithograph

Related Items
Vega-Tuz
Located in Kansas City, MO
Victor Vasarely Vega-Tuz Year: 1981 Medium: Color Lithograph Size: 23.0 x 16.0 in. Signed in in the stone COA provided Victor Vasarely (Hungarian-French, 1906-1997) is one of the founding fathers of the Op-Art movement in Europe. His brightly colored optical patterns introduced a visually kinetic aspect to the traditionally flat paintings of his generation. Vasarely originally planned on becoming a doctor, however he abandoned medicine to follow his passion in the arts and enrolled at Sandor Bortnyik's private art school called Muhely, at the time widely recognized as Budapest's centre of Bauhaus studies...
Category

1980s Op Art

Materials

Lithograph

Historic limited edition 1960s retrospective poster British Council Pop Op Art
Located in New York, NY
After Bridget Riley Bridget Riley Works 1959-1978: A Major Retrospective Exhibition, 1978 in collaboration with five international museums Published by the Fine Arts Council UK Offs...
Category

1970s Op Art

Materials

Offset, Lithograph

Tecoma - 1972 - Victor Vasarely - Lithograph
Located in Roma, IT
Tecoma is a wonderful colored lithograph with a black, blue, pink abstract composition realized by Victor Vasarely in 1972. The plate is from the portfolio Octal edited by Bruckmann...
Category

1970s Op Art

Materials

Lithograph

Peano's Curves - Lithograph - 1993
Located in Roma, IT
Peano's Curves is an original print realized by Bruno Munari in 1993. Mixed colored lithograph. Hand-signed and numbered in pencil on the lower margin. Edition VII/XXX. Printed by...
Category

1990s Op Art

Materials

Lithograph

"L’échiquier" by Victor Vasarely
Located in Saint Ouen, FR
The Exchequer - Victor Vasarely - 1935 Lithography Inscribed on the back "L'échiquier - Lithog (1935)". Paper size: 40x46cm Size of the work: 33x23cm Signature at bottom right in p...
Category

1930s Op Art

Materials

Lithograph

Richard Feigen Gallery 1965 Op Art poster
Located in New York, NY
Bridget Riley Richard Feigen Gallery 1965 Op Art poster, 1965 Offset lithograph poster 21 × 17 inches Unframed Very rare early Bridget Riley poster...
Category

1960s Op Art

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Beryll, Geometric Abstract Lithograph by Victor Vasarely
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Victor Vasarely, Hungarian (1908 - 1997) Title: Beryll from Souvenirs de Portraits d'Artistes Jacques Prevert Le Coeur a l'ouvrage Year: 1972 Medium: Lithograph, signed in th...
Category

1970s Op Art

Materials

Lithograph

An American Portrait, 1976, Yaacov Agam
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: AFter Yaakov Agam (1928) Title: An American Portrait, exhibition poster Year: 1976 Medium: Offset Lithograph on wove paper Size: 27.75 x 19.25 inches Condition: Excellent Not...
Category

1970s Op Art

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Chateau Mouton Rothschild label (hand signed)
Located in New York, NY
Yaacov Agam Chateau Mouton Rothschild label (hand signed), 1984 Offset lithograph (hand signed by Yaacov Agam) Hand signed twice in black and ...
Category

1980s Op Art

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Bridget Riley Hand Signed by Bridget Riley Geometric Abstraction British Op Art
Located in New York, NY
Bridget Riley Flashback (Hand Signed), 2009 Offset Lithograph (hand signed by Bridget Riley) 27 × 27 inches Boldly signed in black marker on the front Unframed Signed by Bridget Riley in her inimitable hand on the occasion of this 2009-2010 exhibition at the Southampton City Art Gallery of works from the Arts Council of Great Britain collection. Bridget Riley Biography Bridget Riley's (b. 1931) abstract compositions yield a singular sense of visual pleasure for the viewer, a notion derived as much from the artist's formative encounters with Old Master and Impressionist painting as from her early experiences with nature. Since 1961, she has focused exclusively on seemingly simple geometric forms, such as lines, circles, curves, and squares, arrayed across a surface—whether a canvas, a wall, or paper—according to an internal logic. The resulting compositions actively engage the viewer, at times triggering sensations of vibration and movement. This sense of dynamism was explored to great effect in the artist's earliest black-and-white paintings, which established the basis of her enduring formal vocabulary. In 1967, Riley introduced color into her work, thus expanding the perceptual and optical possibilities of her compositions. Riley was born in 1931 in London, where she attended Goldsmiths College from 1949 to 1952 and the Royal College of Art from 1952 to 1955. Riley’s first solo exhibitions were held at Gallery One, London, in 1962 and 1963, followed by two exhibitions at Robert Fraser Gallery, London, in 1966 and 1967. She was also at that time included in numerous group exhibitions such as Towards Art?, Royal College of Art London (1962); The New Generation, Whitechapel Gallery, London (1964); and Painting and Sculpture of a Decade 1954–1964, Tate Gallery, London (1964). In 1965, her work was included in the now-seminal group exhibition The Responsive Eye, organized by William Seitz at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 1968, she represented Great Britain at the 34th Venice Biennale (along with Philip King), where she was the first living British painter to win the prestigious International Prize for Painting. Her first retrospective, covering the period from 1961 to 1970, opened at the Kunstverein Hannover in 1971 and subsequently traveled to Kunsthalle Bern; Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna, Turin; and the Hayward Gallery, London. More recent significant solo presentations include those at Dia Center for the Arts, New York (2000-2001); Museum Haus Esters and Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld, Germany (2002); Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2004-2005); Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2008); Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (traveled to Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery; Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery; Southampton City Art Gallery; 2009-2010); The National Gallery, London (2010-2011); Art Institute of Chicago (2014-2015); The Courtauld Gallery, London (2015); De La Warr...
Category

Early 2000s Op Art

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Vintage Hardback Monograph: Planetary Folklore (Hand signed by Victor Vasarely)
Located in New York, NY
Victor Vasarely Planetary Folklore (Hand signed by Victor Vasarely), 1973 Hardback monograph with dust jacket Hand signed by Victor Vasarely on the first front end page 9 1/2 × 9 7/...
Category

1970s Op Art

Materials

Paper, Ink, Mixed Media, Lithograph, Offset, Board

Negative - Positive - Lithograph - 1993
Located in Roma, IT
Negative - Positive is an original print realized by Bruno Munari in 1993. Mixed colored lithograph Hand-signed and numbered in pencil on the lower margin. Edition VII/XXX Printed...
Category

1990s Op Art

Materials

Lithograph

Previously Available Items
Square Variables VII
Located in Surfside, FL
Early graphic work by the photographer Todd Smith during his period at Pratt Institute in the early 1970s. Edition of 250, unsigned and unnumbered, as issued.
Category

1970s Op Art

Materials

Lithograph

Square Variables VI
Located in Surfside, FL
Early graphic work by the photographer Todd Smith during his period at Pratt Institute in the early 1970s. Edition of 250, unsigned and unnumbered, as issued.
Category

1970s Op Art

Materials

Lithograph

Square Variables XI
Located in Surfside, FL
Early graphic work by the photographer Todd Smith during his period at Pratt Institute in the early 1970s. Edition of 250, unsigned and unnumbered, as issued.
Category

1970s Op Art

Materials

Lithograph

Square Variables IX
Located in Surfside, FL
Early graphic work by the photographer Todd Smith during his period at Pratt Institute in the early 1970s. Edition of 250, unsigned and unnumbered, as issued.
Category

1970s Op Art

Materials

Lithograph

Square Variables IX
H 16.25 in W 16.25 in

Op Art art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Op art 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 art created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, purple, orange, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Victor Vasarely, Roy Ahlgren, Victor Debach, and Yaacov Agam. Frequently made by artists working with Screen Print, and Paint 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, so small editions measuring 2 inches across are also available. Prices for art 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 $66 and tops out at $350,000, while the average work sells for $1,616.

Recently Viewed

View All