The term “Op Art” was invented by a critic, not an artist, and the movement to which it was applied—if movement it was—came and went within a span of about five years in the mid- to late 1960s. But the work of Richard Anuszkiewicz, who was hailed as one of Op’s two greatest practitioners, lives on, a unique contribution to abstract art and to our understanding of the way color affects the human eye, mind, and spirit.
Anuszkiewicz’s paintings and prints are instantly recognizable for their bold contrasts between complementary colors, their geometrically rigorous organization, and their intricate use of fine lines. To 21st-century eyes, they look as if they could have been made with computer software, but in fact they are hand-made, every inch of the way. Acrylic paint…