Anuszkiewicz, Richard

Anuszkiewicz, Richard (1930– ). American painter, his country's leading exponent of Op art. He was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, and studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art, 1948–53, and then at Yale University under Josef Albers, 1953–5. Albers stimulated his interest in the effects of colour on perception, but it was not until about 1960 that he started to address this in his painting. ‘My work', he says, ‘is of an experimental nature and has centered on an investigation into the effects of complementary colors of full intensity when juxtaposed and the optical changes that occur as a result.’ His painting is distinct from that of the two most famous exponents of Op art; whereas Bridget Riley's pictures are often aggressively dazzling and Victor Vasarely's often contain suggestions of a third dimension, Anuszkiewicz's are concerned with radiating expanses of lines.