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Bridget Riley-Inspired Op Art

Bridget Riley-Inspired Op Art

Create eye-catching Bridget Riley-inspired op art drawings.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • Paper

Steps

  • Step 1

    Display an image of "Cataract 3" painted in 1967 by Bridget Riley. Discuss the piece: What do students see? How do they think it was made? What feelings does it evoke? What types of artistic design principles do they see?

  • Step 2

    Introduce Bridget Riley, an English artist known for her op art paintings and the first woman to win the International Prize for Painting. Discuss op art, an abstract style that creates optical illusions that became very popular in the 1960s.

  • Step 3

    Ask students to create their own op art pieces. They might want to sketch open shapes on a piece of white paper and fill in the shapes with varying straight and curvy lines, some farther apart and others closer together. They can be in black and white or use different colors.

  • Step 4

    Have students present their op art and discuss how they created their works. Ask others about the illusions they see and the feelings the art invokes.

Standards

ARTS: Analyze how the arts reflect changing times, traditions, resources, and cultural uses.

ARTS: Analyze multiple ways that images and performances can influence specific audiences.

ARTS: Describe what an image or performance represents.

LA: Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

Adaptations

Create one op art image using only black and white and another using color. Did color change the mood of the piece? Does one create more of an optical illusion than the other?

Introduce students to M.C. Escher, a Dutch artist known for his optical illusions. He was inspired by mathematics and nature and created "impossible objects."