Richard Anuszkiewicz, Green Edged Light Red Oxide, 1980, Acrylic on Canvas, 48” x 48”

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Mr. Anuszkiewicz (he pronounced it ah-noo-SHKEV-ich) devoted his career to studying how some of the fundamental elements of art could be manipulated to create perceptual effects. His experiments with color led him to make paintings of geometric shapes that seem to vibrate and emanate light.

And though his compositions are hard-edged, their repetition of shapes and lines and their complementary radiating hues evoke a kind of spirituality. “I’m interested in making something romantic out of a very, very mechanistic geometry,” he once said.

He was at the forefront of the Op Art movement in the United States, making and showing his abstractions before writers had even come up with the term, short for optical art. Once they did, they were quick to apply it to his work.

By Jillian Steinhauer

From the New York Times