Op Art and a History of Deception 1520 to 1970

Under the title Vertigo, mumok presents a deceptive game of the senses, presenting a wide spectrum ranging from panel paintings, reliefs, and objects to installations and experiential spaces, to film and computer-generated art. Op art works are by no means only directed at our sense of sight. With their powerful effects and optical illusions they lead to experiences of sensory overkill. In all of this, op art remains indebted to the anti-classical. In this sense, the catalogue includes references to anti-classical art from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries and to precursors from the first half of the twentieth century, works that also use pulsating patterns, beating and ephemeral after-images, paradoxical illusions of space, and other methods of optical illusions. Text: Eva Badura-Triska, Eva-Marina Froitzheim, Ulrike Groos, Sergius Kodera, Karola Kraus, Charissa N. Terranova, Markus Wörgötter