Art – Light – Perspective Research Centre

Patently art, and all kinds of visual/optical/technical perspective are intimately involved or intertwined with light, which renders attendant views/images visible. However, some artists have placed greater emphasis not on images but on the nature and effects of light itself.

Light Art

Light art is a visual medium in which light—whether natural, electric, neon, or LED—serves as the primary artistic element rather than merely illuminating a piece. It encompasses immersive spatial installations, illuminated sculptures, and photographic light-painting techniques.

Pioneered in the early 20th century by artists like László Moholy-Nagy and later popularised by the 1960s Light and Space movement, the genre treats photons and illumination as sculptural materials.

Op Art

Op art was a major development in painting in the 1960s that used geometric forms to create optical and illusory effects, often creating the illusion of a 3-D space on a 2-D picture plane, either through combinations of linear perspective, false perspective, accelerated perspective, and/or other monocular depth cues. Victor Vasarely (1906 – 1997) was a Hungarian-French artist, who was a leader of the Op art movement.

**Victor Vasarely**
*KEZDI-DOMB, 1968 – 1975*

Pointillism

Pointillism is a painting technique that uses small dots of colour to create an image. The technique was developed by French artists Georges Seurat and Paul Signac.

How it works

Artists apply tiny dots of pure colour in close proximity
When viewed from a distance, the eye mixes the dots together to create solid areas of colour
Pointillist painters often use complementary colours, such as red and green, or blue and orange, to make their subjects more vibrant

History

Pointillism originated from Impressionism
The technique is based on colour separation theories
French chemist Michel Eugene Chevreul’s discoveries influenced Seurat

Sunday in La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat (1884-1886)

Lumia

Lumia is a form of kinetic art that uses light. The term was coined by a twentieth-century artist, Thomas Wilfred, who built elaborate optical machines to display lumia on large screens. The three main elements are form, colour, and motion in a dark space. Wilfred’s original contribution to lumia was the introduction of a fourth dimension – time – or variable rates and forms of colour/motion.