Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Seattle Op Artist

Seattle Op Artist

Photo & Text Copyright 2009 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

This is a portion of a ginormous op art work I saw at SEATAC airport. It is by artist and art historian Francis Celentano, a University of Washington professor emeritus, and a very active artist, now 80. His work, along with other artists' who explored the op art genre of abstraction, has been influential in the work of several quilt and textile artists I admire. I've even noticed some fabric manufacturers creating fabric colorways that mimic the airbrushed gradations of color Celentano uses for his stripes to achieve optical effects like this. He works like a quilt artist, assembling a new whole out of precisely cut and reassembled pieces. This work is acrylic on masonite strips, and this is just a straight ahead detail of the very long and tall work, Spectrum Delta II, which I believe dates from the mid 70s. Lately he has produced amazing curving striped abstracts that were exhibited at the Laura Russo Gallery in Portland last summer. I dare you to try and follow one stripe with your eye from top to bottom or bottom to top. :-)

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