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
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
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
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
Near and Far Acuity, Mid Century Modern Op Art painting from historic exhibition
Located in New York, NY
Richard Anuszkiewicz
Near and Far Acuity, 1957
Gouache and watercolor painting
Hand signed and dated 1957 by Richard Anuszkiewicz on the right front
Frame included
Anuszkiewicz' artworks from the late 1950s are rarely found on the market. This historic painting is one of the works that helped launch the artist's career. It was done in 1957 - the year the artist arrived in New York.
Near and Far Acuity has been removed from its original frame, and re-framed in an elegant wood frame with conservation materials and UV plexiglass. The original gallery label from The Contemporaries has been preserved and affixed to the new backing, and the collector who acquires this work will also be provided with a copy of the original receipt - signed by Karl Lunde (director of the Contemporaries and author of a major monograph on the artist).
Measurements:
Frame:
32 x 28 x 2 inches
Artwork:
21 x 25 inches
This work was first exhibited in the groundbreaking, and career-making 1960 exhibition at The Contemporaries gallery (New York, February 29, 1960 - March 19, 1960) and was featured in the exhibition catalogue, shown in the images here.
In his essay entitled "Richard Anuszkiewicz: Color Precisionist" by art historian John T. Spike, he writes, "In the spring of '57, Richard Anuszkiewicz left Ohio for good. "I was ready. I came to New York with a substantial amount of work. I was ready to go around to the galleries and I was prepared because I really had something. I had an idea. I had a series of paintings that showed this idea and I felt good about it and I felt now that's the only place for me to be." A friend helped him get a job touching up the plaster models of classical temples and statues in the Junior Museum of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He took off six months the next year to travel around Europe in a Volkswagen, also seeing some places in North Africa. "When I came back, I remember taking my work around to the galleries and receiving interesting comments — positive comments from the various people. But Abstract Expressionism was very popular. My things were very hard-edged, very strong in color — a use of color that nobody was using. Everybody would say. 'Oh, they are nice, but so hard to look at. They hurt my eyes". Leo Castelli considered him seriously but the gallery was developing a specialization in pop artists like Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. "I can remember going to Martha Jackson and having her look at the work and she would put her hands straight out in front of her and block out parts of the painting with her hand and she'd say, mmm no rest areas." He finally caught on with The Contemporaries Gallery in the fall of 1959. The gallery at 992 Madison Avenue mainly represented new European talent. Karl Lunde, the gallery director, saw some of his canvases hanging...
Category
1950s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Watercolor, Gouache, Mixed Media
3D Render Mountain Landscape, Handmade Cyanotype in Deep Blue Tones, Minimal
By Kind of Cyan
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
Untitled VI, Acrylic Painting on Paper by David Roth
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
Oscillation
By Roy Ahlgren
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
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 V, Op Art Abstract Geometric Pencil Drawing David Roth
By 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
Agam Original Marker Drawing Colorful Spirals Hand Signed Israeli Kinetic Op Art
By Yaacov Agam
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
#2
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This 11x14-inch hand-drawn Op Art piece features exceptional detail. The time invested in this limited edition was well spent, as the meticulous creation process cultivates patience...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Pen
Doors opening #2
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This unique, limited-edition 11x14 inch op art piece, meticulously rendered on fine paper using a gel pen and metal ruler, creates a captivating optical illusion. Its monochrome des...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Archival Paper, Gel Pen
#7
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This exceptional 9x12 inch artwork showcases precision and consistency in its finest lines, featuring intricate triangles and other visual illusions for the viewer to discover. Its ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Gel Pen
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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Silky Terrier Painting
Located in New York, NY
Original gouache, probably Belgian for matchbox covers. Mid-20th Century.
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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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“Untitled #2”
Located in Southampton, NY
Original watercolor on archival paper by the California artist, Edward Darrell Crisp. Signed in pencil lower right margin. Dated in pencil lower left m...
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1960s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
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Windswept (Abstract Expressionism painting)
By Gina Werfel
Located in London, GB
Acrylic and mixed media on paper - Unframed.
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Untitled 1 - Expressive Charcoal On Paper Painting, Black White Drawing
Located in Salzburg, AT
The paper of the work is not yellowed, there is a applied yellowed primer under the drawing
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Coloured Print of Photorealist Painting of Gleneagles Golf Course in Scotland
Located in Preston, GB
Coloured Print of Photorealist Painting of Gleneagles Golf Course in Scotland by 20th Century Scottish Artist, Graeme Baxter, entitled 'The Gleneagles Hotel, Monarch's Course'.
Art measures 14 x 10 inches
Frame measures 19 x 15 inches
Coloured Print on High Quality Paper
Signed on the Front
Glazed & Mounted
Good Condition
Frame (commensurate with age)
Graeme Baxter is the official artist to some of the world's most important golf tournaments, such as The Ryder Cup...
Category
1990s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
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Living Heart
Located in San Francisco, CA
Paula Valenzuela
Living Heart, 2025
Watercolor and acrylic inks on paper
12 x 9 inches
This one-of-a-kind work on paper comes unframed and ships in a tube. External, visible frame a...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Paper, Ink, Watercolor
FLOWERS - Exhibited in 1997 Smithsonian Monotype Exhibition
By Karl Yens
Located in Santa Monica, CA
KARL YENS (1868 – 1945)
(FLOWERS) 1919
Color monotype signed, dated and annotated: “monotype 1919.” 17 ½” x 11 ½”
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1810s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
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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...
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1940s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
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'Birds in Flight', Modernist Equestrian Gouache
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower right, 'Buk' for Eduard Buk Ulreich (American, 1889-1966), dedicated lower right, 'Made for Ruth M.' and painted circa 1945. Titled verso 'Birds in Flight', additionally...
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Aggregate #24 (Abstract Contemporary Painting, Framed)
Located in New Orleans, LA
(Comes framed in a maple floater frame, ready to hang.)
This is one of a series we have posted on 1stDibs. The first got more clicks and saves on its first day than any of the many hundreds of artworks we have ever posted. If you search on "G. Campbell Lyman" on 1stDibs you can see others in this series. Here's a recent message from a 1stDibs buyer of a painting in this series, a seasoned collector:
"Love your work. We collect colorists like Wolf Kahn and Jennifer Bartlett, whom I commissioned a piece from that is in the entrance of Mayo Clinic. We are old fans...
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2010s Op Art Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
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Charcoal, Pastel, House Paint, Acrylic
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...
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Previously Available Items
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
Materials
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.