Op Art The term referenced the fact that Op Art is comprised of illusion, and often appears - to the human eye - to be moving or breathing due to its precise, mathematically-based composition. Major contributors to this style were Victor Vasarely, MC Escher, Bridget Riley.
Victor Vasarely: Best known as the "father" figure of Op Art, Vasarely went through a number of styles to get there. During his start as a graphic designer, he was influenced by the artists of the Bauhaus and early Abstract Expressionism. He unstintingly took these principles to new levels of geometric precision and fostered the Op Art movement. His brilliant works went mainstream, in the forms of posters and fabrics.
Pop ArtPop Art was born in Britain in the mid 1950s. It was the brain-child of several young subversive artists - as most modern art tends to be. The first application of the term Pop Art occurred during discussions among artists who called themselves the Independent Group (IG), which was part of the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, begun around 1952-53. Key characteristics of pop art are recognizable imagery, that are drawn from popular media and products, usually very bright colors, flat imagery influenced by comic books and newspaper photographs and images of celebrities or fictional characters in comic books, advertisements and fan magazines.
Major Contributors were: Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Robert Indiana.
Roy Lichtenstein is one of the two most recognized names in Pop Art (Andy Warhol being the other). He is best known for his paintings of what appear to be machine-printed comic strips, although he was also fond of depicting advertisements. His work is characterized by his wry sense of humor, careful precision (he never let his brushwork show) and use of stencils to create the paintings' patterns of Ben Day dots. (Those were tools graphic artists used before the advent of computer pixels.)
Action PaintingAction Painting emphasizes the process of making art, often through a variety of techniques that include dripping, dabbing, smearing, and even flinging paint on to the surface of the canvas. These energetic techniques depend on broad gestures directed by the artist's sense of control interacting with chance or random occurrences. For this reason, Action Painting is also referred to as Gestural Abstraction.
Major contributors: Sam Francis, Jackson Pollock, Sam Kline, Lee Krasner.
Sam Francis: From the 1960s onward Sam Francis develops his very personal form of spontaneous and gestic drippings. He applies acrylic, oil and watercolors to the image carrier with revolving and splashing motions. The surface of his "Grid Pictures" from the 1970s is covered with a netlike structure. Besides Action Painting, Francis being one of the most important representatives thereof, he also turns to other techniques such as lithography, etching and monotype.
Urban GraffitiUrban art is a style of art that relates to cities and city life often done by artists who live in or have a passion for city life. In that way urban art combines street art and graffiti and is often used to summarize all visual art forms arising in urban areas, being inspired by urban architecture or urban life style. Because the urban arts are characterized by existing in the public space, they are often viewed as vandalism and destruction of private property. Even though sometimes this form of art leads to vandalism the creators do not see themselves as vandals.
Major Contributors: John Fekner, Fab Five Freddy and Lee Quinones, Banksy
Banksy: He was inspired by local artists and his work was part of the larger Bristol underground scene with Nick Walker, Inkie and 3D. From the start he used stencils as elements of his freehand pieces, too. By 2000 he had turned to the art of stenciling after realizing how much less time it took to complete a work. He claims he changed to stenciling while he was hiding from the police under a rubbish lorry, when he noticed the stenciled serial number and by employing this technique, he soon became more widely noticed for his art around Bristol and London. Banksy's stencils feature striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist or anti-establishment. Subjects often include rats, apes, policemen, soldiers, children, and the elderly.