How I came into creating electronical Op Art
As a Mechanical Engineer, born in 1966, visiting the University of Stuttgart between 1987 and 1994, finishing that as a Dipl.-Ing. (that’s approximately the equivalent of a Master of Science), I now do have more than 25 years of experience in development (mainly automotive business). This could have helped, sharpening my sense of geometry.
I was always fascinated about the Work of Viktor Vasarely, especially the Vega series – creating this magnificent Illusion of 3-D space just by deforming continuous 2-D patterns; and I still use his terminology today (e.g. Vega-Series; Vonal-Series; Hexagon; …). Already in 2007 I did my first educational journey to Pécs.
But in 2018, looking a bit more intensive as usual to different pictures of the Vega series, I suddenly realized how he did that, and what is that common effect, used in the Vega-series, as well as in the Vonal-series, the homage to the hexagon and even other artists of that time like Dadamaino.
Trying to reproduce this effect with the tools I am used to as an engineer (CAD; Powerpoint; …) I found out that it does work. It didn’t take long until I even tried to apply this technique to more complex geometries and it started forming my own handwriting. But it also didn’t take long until I realized, geometry is only half of the picture – colour is the other half.
So, I joined the Freie Alternative Kunstschule Akademie Agethen (evening classes) and intensively studied the chromatics of Itten and Küppers, what helped me increasing complexity not only from the geometry side, but also from the colour side.
With this understanding I decided to do a second educational journey to Pécs, now focused less on the impression of looking at these pictures, than on finding further hints on the technique used to make these pictures. Further educational journeys to Frankfurt (Städel Museum; 2018) to the Ritter-Museum (Waldenbuch; 2019) and to the KZM (Karlsruhe; 2019) followed.
After the Visit in Waldenbuch I did send two of my pictures to the Ritter-Museum. They accepted the donation and even send back a good kg of chocolate – So now I can claim: „I have 2 pictures in the collection Marli Hoppe-Ritter”.
In 2020 the Corona Pandemic slowed down everything, also my plans of a first, small exhibition.
In June 2021 I convinced the Autohaus Temiz & Hocke to display 3 of my pictures in their sales rooms – My first semi-public exhibits.
Viktor Vasarely regarded himself as an artist with a strong Interest in science. I regard myself as a scientist with a strong interest in Art. Unlike him, I use the help of a computer to guarantee the precision, needed to form these optical illusions in a way, that reflect my imagination. My vision is to bring the beauties of OP-ART into the 21st century, forming a new handwriting that may be called E-OP-ART (formed by an E-artist).
About my artists Name
I decided to call myself “Mysterious Lines”. On the one side, that’s a hint to how E-OP-ART works (the lines of a regular patter being deformed to what you see in my pictures) on the other side that uses the Initials of my real name.
With my work, I do not want to send a hidden, messages (like change your life…). In my understanding, art should be enjoyed by the observer. You will find optical illusions in my pictures that trick the eye. (sometimes more than one illusion in one picture). That may be psychedelic or mysterious, but it’s not magics or esoteric. Tastes are different. So, if you like my pictures, share the link to this web-page with other people, that might like it as well (that’s what keeps E-OP-ART alive). If not, don’t bother…