Illusion

Bridget Riley (b.1931)
Hesitate, 1964
Oil on canvas
support: 1067 x 1124 mm frame: 1155 x 1100 x 54 mm
Tate Collection

When one mentions Op Art, Bridget Riley's paintings are the most famous example. I spent a lot of time with abstract art during a museum visit last week, none of which was by Bridget Riley, but I thought I would overflow into this week with the work of women. The Albright Knox Art Gallery owns at least one Riley, and this was my first experience with her work. As a child I loved it because of how it played with my eyes. I would move back and forth, closer, farther away from the painting to see how it changed.

Op Art refers to the optical effects that the work has on the viewer. The experience becomes dimensional and dominates the viewer's experience. Op Art and Riley's work had a very significant affect on commercial ventures such as fashion and design.

Riley's works don't get their due justice in a digital environment, despite their optical quality. Her paintings are often very large, and this has a very specific effect on the viewer who is in turn encompassed by the illusion and visuality in the work. The "fine art" aspect of Riley's work has been debated as her work fits more comfortably with decoration and design than fine art. An interesting article briefly tackles the distinction and Riley's work -
"Read between the lines: Are Bridget Riley’s paintings really fine art?" by Will Self.

Dahlia

Gaillardia Cosmos Dahlia, 2005
Robert Kushner
Oil, acrylic, gold leaf, silver leaf, mica and glitter on Japanese screen, 69 x 68 3/4 inches

A discovery through a small catalog at work, I've quickly fallen in love with Robert Kushner's work. It took me awhile to narrow down just one work so please visit the links and see the wonderful array of paintings that Kushner has created. Beautiful, rich color makes these paintings pop. Kushner often reuses old Japanese screens and doors as his "canvas" but the Japanese influences spread throughout his choice of base for his painting. While these themes are inherent what is beautiful and makes these paintings unique is Kushner's western traditions in his style of painting. His florals are bold and his composition is seemingly random, the structure one would associate with a Japanese painting is loosened in Kushner's work. Dimension is created through different styles of flowers, from simple outlined flowers to multi-colored depth.

It is fascinating to know that Kushner started out as a performance artist in the 1970s, whose creation of costumes were the beginning of his attention to decoration and ornament. One can see the decoration and ornament of his current floral paintings in not only the color, structure and subject matter but also the use of materials beyond traditional paint to include gold leaf, glitter and more. Kushner was a part of the Pattern and Decoration movement of the 1970s. Artists created work of complex and brightly colored patterns.