Julio Le Parc at Atkinson Museum, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Group-exhibition

4 July - 30 September 2023 
During the 1950s and 1960s, many artists started to bring ideas from mathematics, scientific research and colour theory into their work, and some began using computers to create images.
 
These artists saw the viewer not as passive spectator but as active participant, engaging with art in real time and space. Their works often trigger complex visual sensations, activated by the viewer’s perception of shape, colour and pattern. Sometimes this effect is intensified by the inclusion of kinetic parts that create real or perceived movement.
 

Optical art emerged during this period. Artists combined simple lines, geometric shapes, and eye-popping colour to create optical effects and illusions. Kinetic Art was closely associated with Op Art, encompassing art utilising motors, moving elements and sources of energy to challenge art as a static form.

 

This exhibition revisits Optical and Kinetic Art from a global perspective. It weaves together artists like Victor Vasarely, Jesús Rafael Soto, Alexander Calder and Frank Stella, closely associated with these movements as well as their predecessors and contemporary practitioners.

 

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