Optical.2C geometric and kinetic art Oliver Bevan

both ways 1, 1965, oliver bevan (details).



co-incidence, 1978, oliver bevan (details).

bevan s first solo exhibition @ grabowski gallery, london, in 1965 featured 8 op art paintings hard edges , colour fields in black, white , shades of grey, plus red , blue in both ways 1 , 2. paintings based on isometric projections of cube , played on viewer’s visual perception through tonal flicker, figure-ground reversals , other optical ambiguities bevan described ‘a conflict between certainty of geometry , uncertainty of perceptual mechanism in dealing it’, adding paintings ‘clues might possible’. exhibition attracted favourable reviews critics such john dunbar, norbert lynton , guy brett, latter concluding achieves aim of intensifying our awareness of our perceptual processes, implies our awareness of visible world . second exhibition of ten new paintings @ grabowski gallery in 1967 introduced shaped canvases , larger colour palette further provoke viewer active relationship work . concept of viewer participation - whereby each person brings own perceptual interpretation paintings , contributes creative process - made tangible in third exhibition @ grabowski gallery in 1969. featured seventeen new works, including tabletop piece consisting of sixteen square tiles each divided diagonally 2 of 4 colours , rearranged viewer create different combinations of figure , ground. bevan developed idea further, using 6 magnetic tiles on square steel sheet covered black canvas , hung on wall painting. new work, connections, shown @ institute of contemporary arts in 1969-70 part of play orbit, exhibition of artworks visitors interact or play in manner of toys , games. meanwhile, chance visit grabowski exhibition john constable, art director @ fontana books, led commission bevan create cover paintings first twenty titles in series on vanguard thinkers , theorists called fontana modern masters. bevan drew directly on connections piece, creating 2 sets of geometric cover designs reader arrange ‘tiles’ in larger artwork. books published in 1970-73, time bevan had collaborated composers brian dennis , grahame dudley on production @ cockpit theatre of dennis s z noc, thirty-minute experimental piece in musicians take cues changing display of abstract colours, shapes , shadows bevan created projecting light onto 3 mobiles. led bevan experiment polaroid medium other types of kinetic art, , in 1973 produced first of lightboxes using polarizing filters , fluorescent tubes, more complex versions employing electric motors , sets of rotating discs. these lightboxes became canvases chromatropic paintings which, bevan explained, enable colours selected in time space , resulting in mesmerising display of changing colours , shifting shapes forms dissolved , reappeared.

between 1974 , 1978 bevan s chromatropic or time paintings exhibited in london, zurich, detroit , toronto, pieces such turning world, crescendo, sunspot , co-incidence (now in government art collection ) winning plaudits ernst gombrich , others. 8 points in cycle of pyramid chromatrope used fontana modern masters covers, of each book offering following explanation: painting made of transparent materials assume colours when illuminated polarised light. if plane of polarisation rotated slowly, happens mechanically in box designed display painting, colours pass through recurring cycle of change .