Description
The chart is an interactive lineage map. Op Art sits at the center, on a timeline that runs from older movements at the top to newer ones at the bottom. The movements that influenced it appear above it, any parallel movements it developed alongside sit on its own row, and the movements it later influenced appear below. Every line is a real, cited connection between two movements: a solid line is an influence historians broadly agree on, and a dashed line is an indirect, parallel, or contested link.
For Op Art (1960s), it traces two movements that shaped it, all well-established links: Bauhaus and Geometric abstract art; it runs alongside two parallel movements, all well-established links: Kinetic art and Pop art; it fans out to one movement it went on to influence, a well-established link: Light and Space.
Op art, short for optical art, is a style of visual art that uses distorted or manipulated geometrical patterns, often to create optical illusions. It began in the early 20th century, and was especially popular from the 1960s on, the term "Op art" dating to 1964.
Op artworks are normally abstract, with some better-known pieces created in black and white. Typically, they give the viewer the impression of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibrating patterns, or swelling or warping. In contrast, the much older trompe-l'œil style always represents figurative subjects, which are shown with deceptive three-dimensionality. Read more ↗
