Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
“I’m interested,” Richard Anuszkiewicz (1930–2020) once said, “in making something romantic out of a very, very mechanistic geometry.” Anuszkiewicz sought to achieve this romance through works juxtaposing vibrant colors in geometric configurations. The perceptual effects he created helped define the American Op art movement.
Anuszkiewicz studied color theory at Yale under Josef Albers and was greatly influenced by Albers’s approach. “The image in my work has always been determined by what I wanted the color to do,” Anuszkiewicz explained in a 1974 catalogue. “Color function becomes my subject matter, and its performance is my painting.”
He departed from his mentor, however, in the pulsating, illusory qualities he gave his work. One of his most famous paintings, Deep Magenta Square (1978), although similar in composition to Albers’s “Homage to the Square” series, is distinctly Op art in the way the striations surrounding the central square seem to vibrate and jump off the canvas.
Anuszkiewicz spent his entire career exploring optical effects through the manipulation of line and color, producing spectacular and timeless pieces of art. “Working with basic ideas will always be exciting,” he said in 1977. “And if a color or form is visually exciting in any profound sense, it will be that way in 10 or 20 years from now.”
Browse a variety of paintings and prints by Richard Anuszkiewicz at 1stDibs.
1980s Op Art Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Acrylic
Mid-20th Century Op Art Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Mixed Media, Watercolor, Gouache
1960s Op Art Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Acrylic
1960s Op Art Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Mixed Media, Acrylic, Canvas
1950s American Modern Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Paper, Watercolor
1980s Op Art Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
1970s Op Art Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
1940s American Modern Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Paper, Watercolor, Gouache
1940s American Modern Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Paper, Gouache
Late 20th Century Abstract Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Masonite, Acrylic, Board
Mid-20th Century Abstract Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Acrylic, Watercolor
2010s Op Art Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Acrylic, Paper
Mid-20th Century American Modern Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Paper, Charcoal, Watercolor
2010s Op Art Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Acrylic, Handmade Paper
2010s Contemporary Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Acrylic, Gouache, Panel, Wood Panel, Graphite
Early 20th Century American Modern Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Watercolor, Laid Paper
Mid-20th Century American Modern Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Paper, Charcoal, Watercolor
Mid-20th Century American Modern Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Paper, Charcoal, Pastel, Watercolor
1940s American Modern Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Paper, Watercolor
1980s Abstract Geometric Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Enamel
1970s Abstract Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Acrylic
1960s Op Art Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Canvas, Oil
1980s Op Art Richard Anuszkiewicz Paintings
Acrylic Polymer, Wood