Pablo Picasso

Optical Art

March Lesson Plan for Fourth Grade

Optical Art

Optical Art, OP Art, is a mathematically-themed form of Abstract art, in which simple shapes and colors are repeated to create effects in movement. When viewing Op Art images it will be difficult for the viewer to determine the foreground and background. Op Art shows an exaggerated sense of depth (images appear extremely far away) and many other visual effects (can appear 3D or look like the image is moving.)

 

OP Art became popular between 1964 and 1969. Similar to abstract art and Impressionism, OP Art is based on tricks of visual perception: it uses perspective to give the illusion of three-dimensional space and mixes colors to create the impression of light and shadow. First and foremost, Op Art exists to fool the eye. Op Art compositions create a sort of visual tension in the viewer's mind, which gives the art piece the illusion of movement. For example, let’s look at Bridget Riley's Dominance Portfolio, Blue (1977).

(Have students stare at the image displayed on the white board. Please turn the lights off, so that the image is easy to focus on. After a few seconds, ask the students the following questions.)

What did you see?

Did the lines look like they were waving?

Was this easy to look at, or did you want to turn away?

Was the artist, successful at creating movement?

Realistically, you know any Op Art piece is flat (two-dimensional.) However, your eyes begin sending your brain the message that what it's seeing has begun to oscillate, flicker, throb and any other word you can use to mean: "Yikes! This painting is moving!"

In 1965 there was a large exhibition of Op Art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York entitled The Responsive Eye. It was after this exhibit that the public became interested in the Op Art movement. As a result, Op Art began showing up everywhere: in print and television advertising, as record album art and as a fashion motif in clothing and interior design. This form of art made sense during a time when the world was making great strides in science, computers, television and aerospace. It represented an exciting new way too see the modern world. While the Op Art movement only lasted 3 to 4 years, there are still many artists who continue to create Op Art works. Now let’s take a look at a few other Op Art pieces.

Vocabulary Words

Optical Illusion – a false appearance or deceptive impression of reality. For example: the mirror gives an illusion of depth.

Visual Perception – The way your eyes interpret an image or scene.

Foreground – In the front; the portion of a scene nearest to the viewer.

Background – The part of an image represented as being at maximum distance from the frontal plane. For example: when looking at a painting, larger images look closer to the viewer while smaller images appear farther away from the viewer.

3D – Three Dimensional; the effect of depth by presenting slightly different views of a scene to each eye.

Discussion Questions

Here are a few questions to ask the students while showing OP Art examples.

What do you see?

Do you think the artist achieved a 3D effect?

Do you enjoy looking at this type of art?

Do you feel like you see additional images when you look away? (dots, lights, etc.)

Did the artist do a good job of fooling you?

How did they achieve the effect of depth or movement?

M.C. Escher

In this drawing, M.C. Escher uses shading to achieve the visual effect of the hands being raised over the paper. It is almost like a photograph of a person drawing.

Victor Vasarely

Bora III (1964)

OP Art Name Design

Materials: white paper and Sharpie markers

Demonstrate the lesson by following these step by step instructions, please remember to have the students put their name on the back of their paper.

1. Ask the students to write their name in cursive in the center of their paper.

2. Draw outline around name, following cursive lines closely.

3. Repeat this process until the outlines reach the edge of paper.

Note: The closer the lines, the better the optical illusion will be.