Artists Dealing with Space

The first two images are sidewalk art by Julian Beever who is a Belgium-based artist who uses chalk to create his sidewalk masterpieces. Beever deals with space in a very unique way. His artwork has to be viewed from a very specific vantage point to make any visual sense. When standing in the correct place it looks as though the image is popping up from the street. Beever projects his drawings on to the sidewalk using a method called anamorphosis.

The third image is of a sculptural piece by Victor Vasarely who played with space in a similar way as Beever in that he is tricks the eye into thinking something is 3D when it is not. This piece, in fact, is completely flat, made out of different colored tiles to give the illusion that some parts are coming forward and others a receding. I think that OpArt as a whole is always about space and spacial illusion which I like a lot because it really holds the viewers attention.

The fourth image also deals with perspective and vantage point. This is a piece by Youri Messenjaschin of Latvia. His work uses optical illusion as well as color to make the pieces appear like they are moving, vibrating, and disappearing into space. The above piece is two dimensional, but tricks the eye into thinking that it is a three dimensional. At the same time, the way that the shapes are placed, along with what colors were chosen to be next to each other, makes the whole piece seems as though is it moving.

Advertisement

---