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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.

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Style: Op Art
Artist: Tony Bechara
Untitled, Op Art Screenprint by Tony Bechara
Located in Long Island City, NY
Tony Bechara’s abstract composition in red, blue, and green with the issue of visibility and representation in art. Abstracted and hazy, this rendering is emblematic of his works tha...
Category

1980s Op Art

Materials

Screen

Comb 21, Op Art Screenprint by Tony Bechara
Located in Long Island City, NY
Tony Bechara’s abstract composition in red, blue, and green with the issue of visibility and representation in art. Abstracted and hazy, this rendering is emblematic of his works tha...
Category

1980s Op Art

Materials

Screen

Fuji V, Op Art Oil Painting
Located in Long Island City, NY
An abstract painting by Tony Bechara from 2001. An abstract, optical painting representative of the artists conceptual principles of color usage, organization and randomness. Artist...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Op Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Orion, Geometric OP Art Serigraph by Tony Bechara
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Tony Bechara, Puerto Rican (1942 - ) Title: Orion Year: 1979 Medium: Serigraph, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 250 Image Size: 26 x 19 inches Size: 30 in. x 22 in. (...
Category

1970s Op Art

Materials

Screen

Puerto Rican Abstract Geometric Op Art Silkscreen Lithograph Kinetic Art
Located in Surfside, FL
Color Grid. Ziggurat form. Hand signed and numbered silkscreen. Tony Bechara, Artist born in Puerto Rico in 1942. Painter, printmaker. Bechara attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and the School of Jurisprudence and Diplomacy at that same university. He spent one year at the Sorbonne in Paris and, finally, entered New York University. Later, he attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Since 1977 he has taken part in numerous group and solo exhibits in Puerto Rico, the United States, Europe, and Latin America. An acrylic painter known for pointillism, meaning many vibrant, mulit-colored small dots and grids, Tony Bechara is also an appointee of Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City to the City's Latin Media and Entertainment Commission, whose purpose is to promote Latin American media culture. Bechara is also Chairman of the Board of El Museo del Barrio...
Category

1970s Op Art

Materials

Screen

Entraphy, Abstract Op Art Screenprint by Tony Bechara
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Tony Bechara, Puerto Rican (1942 - ) Title: Entraphy Year: 1979 Medium: Serigraph, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 250, AP 30 Image Size: 27.5 x 20 inches Size: ...
Category

1970s Op Art

Materials

Screen

Thunder
Located in Long Island City, NY
An abstract painting by Tony Bechara from 1984. An abstract, optical painting representative of Bechara's conceptual principles of color usage, organization and randomness. Artist...
Category

1980s Op Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

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Agam Silkscreen Mod Judaica Lithograph Hand Signed Israeli Kinetic Op Art Print
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Yaacov Agam Israeli (b. 1928) Hand signed, not individually numbered but from edition of 180. I can include a copy of the title sheet with the edition size and his signature if you r...
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Rainbow Waves, Op Art Screenprint by Jurgen Peters
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Julio Le Parc ( 1928 ) – hand-signed serigraphy on Fabriano paper – 1983
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color serigraphy on Fabriano paper , edited in 1983 Limited Edition of 99 copies Hand signed in pencil by artist lower right and numbered EA ( artist proof ) lower left Paper size: 5...
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Swiss Artist Large Color Symphony Silkscreen Serigraph Print Kinetic Op Art
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Agam Silkscreen Jerusalem Lithograph Hand Signed Israeli Kinetic Op Art Print
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Blue Composition - Screen Print by Victor Debach - 1970s
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Victor Vasarely, Door, 1982
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
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Category

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Agam Silkscreen Mod Judaica Lithograph Hand Signed Israeli Kinetic Op Art Print
Located in Surfside, FL
Yaacov Agam Israeli (b. 1928) Hand signed, not individually numbered but from edition of 180. I can include a copy of the title sheet with the edition size and his signature if you request. sheet: 13.5 X 13.5 inches Some of these works have beautiful Hebrew calligraphy and mod imagery, animals and such that are not usually found in his work. This is a masterpiece of bold, graphic, mod design. Along with Reuven Rubin and Menashe Kadishman he is among Israel's best known artists internationally. Biographical info: The son of a rabbi, Yaacov Agam can trace his ancestry back six generations to the founder of the Chabad movement in Judaism. in 1946, he entered the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. Studying with Mordecai Ardon, a former student at the Weimar Bauhaus. Yaakov Agam has been associated h with “abstract” artists, “hard edge” artists, and artists such as Josef Albers and Max Bill. Others find in Agam’s work an indebtedness to the masters of the Bauhaus. Agam’s approach to art, being conceptual in nature, has been likened to Marcel Duchamp’s, who expressed the need to put art “at the service of the spirit.” And, because of Agam’s employment of color and motion in his art, he has been compared to Alexander Calder, the artist who put sculpture into motion. (Motion is not an end, but a means for Agam. Calder’s mobiles are structures that are fixed, revolving at the whim of the wind. In a work by Agam, the viewer must intervene.) Agam has also been classified as an “op art” artist because he excels in playing with our visual sensitivities. Agam went to Zurich to study with Johannes Itten at the Kunstgewerbeschule. There, he met Frank Lloyd Wright and Siegfried Giedion, whose ideas on the element of time in art and architecture impressed him. In 1955, Galerie Denise René hosted a major group exhibition in connection with Vasarely's painting experiments with movement. in addition to art by Vasarely, it included works by Yaacov Agam, Pol Bury, Soto and Jean Tinguely, among others. Most Americans were first introduced to Vasarely by the groundbreaking exhibition, "The Responsive Eye," at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1965. Josef Albers, Richard Anuszkiewicz. The show confirmed Vasarely's international reputation as the father of Op art. Agam has sought to express his ideas in a non-static form of art. In his abstract Kinetic works, which range from paintings and graphics to sculptural installations and building facades. Agam continually seeks to explore new possibilities in form and color and to involve the viewer in all aspects of the artistic process. Thus, for the past 40 years, Yaacov Agam’s pioneering ideas have impacted developments in art, (painting, monoprint, lithograph and agamograph) architecture, theatre, and public sculpture. Reflecting both his Israeli Jewish...
Category

1980s Op Art

Materials

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Carlos Cruz-Diez ( 1923 – 2019 ) – hand-signed Serigraphy on Arches paper – 1994
Located in Varese, IT
color serigraphy on Arches paper, edited in 1994 Limited Edition of 130 copies signed and dated in pencil by artist in lower right and numbered 83/130 lower left Paper size: 100 x 70...
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Agam Silkscreen Mod Judaica Lithograph Hand Signed Israeli Kinetic Op Art Print
Located in Surfside, FL
Yaacov Agam Israeli (b. 1928) Hand signed, not individually numbered but from edition of 180. I can include a copy of the title sheet with the edition size and his signature if you r...
Category

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Materials

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Banya, 1964 Vintage Abstract Op Art Screen Print Serigraph
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Screen print square, inscribed 'Vasarely' at bottom, hung diagonally, sides of the square 23 1/2 x 23 1/2 (59.5 x 59.5); as hung, 33 x 33 (84 x 84). VICTOR VASARELY (1908-1997) In...
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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.

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