Thesis posts #31-35

Thesis Post #35: Interesting research
originally posted 3/5/09

Visual illusion may explain the allure of pointillist paintings



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Thesis Post #34: exhibition catalogues
originally posted 3/5/09

The Strand has a big collection of museum exhibition catalogues (which I am going to have to make).
I bought a couple random ones that I just liked the design of.
BUT, I was totally nerding out when I found these two catalogues and snatched them up so fast.

The Responsive Eye
from 1965 at The Museum of Modern Art, New York

The Art of the Real: USA 1948-1968
from 1968 at The Museum of Modern Art, New York

These were really important exhibitions.

ESPECIALLY The Responsive Eye!!!
It is basically what introduced the world to Op Art and artists like Frank Stella, Victor Vasarely, Bridget Riley and Getulio Alviani, amongst others.

Here are some photos I found online of the catalogue..




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Thesis Post #33: Need to read these. now.
originally posted 3/5/09

I should be banned from The Strand. Every time I go I spend minimum 4-5 hours there, and then have to take a cab home I bought so many books.

But at least this time these were all in the name of thesis. Or at least that is what I tell myself...

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To Be Looked At: Painting and Sculpture from The Museum of Modern Art



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Design and Art (Documents of Contemporary Art)


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The Metropolitan Museum of Art Illustrated Guide 1972


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Logical Conclusions: 40 Years of Rule-Based Art

(couldn't find any photos of the cover)
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Modern Art: A Critical Introduction


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Modern Painting And Sculpture: 1880 To Present From The Museum Of Modern Art


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Thesis Post #32: Add it to the list of yet another book I want.
originally posted 3/5/09



This is the amazon description...

Reshaping Museum Space pulls together the views of an international group of museum professionals, architects, designers and academics, highlights the complexity, significance and malleability of museum spac, and provides reflections upon recent developments in museum architecture and exhibition design.

Various chapters concentrate on the process of architectural and spatial reshaping, and the problems of navigating the often contradictory agendas and aspirations of the broad range of professionals and stakeholders involved in any new project.

Contributors review recent new build, expansion and exhibition projects questioning the types of museum space required at the beginning of the twenty-first century and highlighting a range of possibilities for creative museum design.

Essential reading for anyone involved in creating, designing and project managing the development of museum exhibits, and vital reading for students of the discipline.

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Thesis Post #31: Bridget Riley
originally posted 2/4/09

Bridget Riley is a British painter, and one of the forerunners of the Op-Art movement.

"In my earlier paintings, I wanted the space between the picture plane and the spectator to be active. It was in that space, paradoxically, the painting 'took place,'" Bridget Riley summarized with characteristic incisive clarity. "Then, little by little, and, to some extent deliberately, I made it go the other way, opening up an interior space, as it were, so that there was a layered, shallow depth. It is important that the painting can be inhabited, so that the mind's eye, or the eye's mind, can move about it credibly."

(click images to enlarge)


Light Between, 1981-2004

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Untitled (Winged Curve), 1966

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Turquoise, Cerise, Ochre: Closed Discs with Black, 1970

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Encircling Discs with Grey in Grey to Black Sequence, 1970

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Untitled (Rothko Portfolio), 1973

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Displaced Parallels, 1962

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Twisted Curve, Horizontal Colour Movement,1977

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Untitled (Diagonal curve), 1966

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Blaze 1, 1962

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Fall, 1963

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Descending, 1965

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Cataract 3, 1967

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source source source
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It would probably be unconstitutional to not include Bridget Riley in an art + visual perception exhibition. You could talk a long time about all of the perceptual illusions her work activates. Most famously illusory motion, but many many others. While almost all of her work throughout her career has employed optical illusions, or are aesthetically inspired by them, most of her work that will be most relevant to my exhibition is from the early 60s through mid-70s.
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I need to research if there have been any fMRI scans done of people looking at her work...
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