Great Op Art at NYS Museum

Friday, 31 March 2006 10:20

Albany, NY – The Albright-Knox Art Gallery’s first exhibition, as part of the Bank of America Great Art Series, debuts April 8th to August 13th at the New York State Museum with the opening of Op Art Revisited: Selections from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. "The Albright-Knox Art Gallery is pleased to be the first upstate representative for the Bank of America Great Art Series at the New York State Museum," said Gallery Director Louis Grachos. "The Gallery, which is best known for its superb collection of modern and contemporary art, is happy to share many of its outstanding examples of Op Art with our museum visitors. Many of these works were included in last summer's highly acclaimed exhibition Extreme Abstraction." Organized by the Gallery’s Associate Curator Holly E. Hughes, the exhibition includes 35 paintings and sculptures from artists central to the Op Art or Optical Art movement, such as Josef Albers, Richard Anuskiewicz, Bridget Riley, Julian Stanczak, and Victor Vasarely. Through the use of parallel lines, concentric circles and electric colors, these artists manipulated depth, perspective, space and color to create an “optical illusion.” The movement began in the 1950s and peaked in 1965 when the Museum of Modern Art in New York mounted the first comprehensive exhibition on Op Art called The Responsive Eye. More recent works by contemporary artists Tim Bavington and Susie Rosmarin are also included in the exhibition to exemplify a resurgence of interest in Op Art. In the 1920s, the Albright-Knox became one of the first museums in the country to collect modern art, including the works of Picasso, Matisse, and other modern masters. Today, the Albright-Knox continues as one of the nation's top centers for contemporary art, collecting and exhibiting noted and provocative works by many top international artists. The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Started in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. The state museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. Visit the museum website at : The New York State Museum

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