Optical Illusions

White Disks by Bridget Riley

I have to say that i think op art is my favorite art style. I would much rather spend five minutes looking at a picture trying to find out how the painted lines are moving than try and find the hidden meaning within a Picasso. Both styles of art are appreciated and the simple colored basic lines of the op art doesn't take any thing away from the intricate brush work of multiple color layers done by Picasso or Van Gogh. In my opinion the op art paintings are more fun to look at because they challenged your brain. I always feel like I'm getting a mental workout by examining an opitical illusion. Bridget Riley had a strong hold on this style. In using achromatic colors such as black white and grey, her works appear to move, flicker and pulsate. These painting are entertaining to look at. In the painting above, the black dots seems to produce a white afterimage if you stare long enough. These afterimages create the allusion that the dots are actually flickering.

This other work by Riley is just as simple with regards to colors and lines. The whole things is made up of short diagonal lines. By lengthening the lines and making them skinnier, an illusion is made. When staring at the image, it seems to be spiraling downward. I like that the bottom is a white hole instead of a black hole. I think Riley deserves a lot of credit for making a painting move. This is a very different style of art that can be expanded into many different uses.