Eye Magic: Visual Trickery in Art - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0764178695 ISBN 13: 9780764178696

Publisher: B E S Pub Co, 2005

Synopsis

A beautifully illustrated, imaginatively designed book is packaged here with several unusual "eye magic" items. This fascinating set explores the subject of visual illusions in art and technology. The book shows and discusses many examples of trompe l'oeil (fool-the-eye) artworks, including a famous eighteenth-century painting by British artist William Hogarth, paintings by French pointillist artists Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, and examples from the American Op Art movement that flourished in the 1960s. Also presented are examples of moir© patterns—optical effects produced when two sets of lines or grids overlap. Much of the psychedelic poster art of a few decades ago took advantage of the effects of moir© patterns and wildly contrasting color schemes. But Eye Magic is more than an ordinary art book. One of its extra-thick covers is really a specially designed drawer containing several "eye magic" items. They include—

A flip book showing horses that appear to leap when the pages are riffled

A zoetrope drum that comes with three zoetrope picture strips

A mylar sheet to produce a 3D illusion in anamorphic illustrations

Two moir©-pattern acetate sheets printed with black grids

For the uninitiated, the zoetrope—originally devised in the nineteenth century—is a forerunner of motion pictures. It consists of a revolving cylinder with a series of illustrations on its inside surface and evenly spaced viewing slots around its circumference. When viewers spin the cylinder and peer through the slots, they see a picture of a single object—now in motion. This book with its boxed "eye magic" items will appeal both to art lovers and to general readers who are fascinated by optical illusions. Eye Magic makes a fascinating and unusual addition to anyone's personal art book collection, as well as a truly imaginative gift item.

About this title

From the Back Cover

[back cover]
Here is a book that tricks the eye, pops up, flips over, animates, and mesmerizes. Inside are masterpieces, groundbreaking art, and paper ephemera drawn from the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Since the earliest of times, artists have delighted in creating works that make people wonder if they can believe their eyes. Whether it’s a room whose cupboards appear to be stocked with treasures, a painting that a fly seems to have landed on, or an image that changes when viewed from a new angle, this book will leave you marveling at ingenious artistic trickery.

Turn two-dimensional images into 3-D with a pop-up stereoscope

Make still images come to life with a pop-up zoetrope

Animate a fire by moving a moir� screen across a nineteenth-century print

Explore eye teasers from sixteenth-century Islamic art

Examine how perspective is used and misused from Tiepolo to Hogarth

Understand how Georges Seurat used dots to create some of the most famous eye magic of all time

Watch straight lines wiggle before your eyes in twentieth-century Op Art

AND MUCH, MUCH MORE

A pullout tray nestled inside the back cover includes a moir� screen, a zoetrope drum, a Mylar mirror, six zoetrope strips, and a flip-book.

Edition details

• Publisher: B E S Pub Co
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0764178695
• ISBN 13: 9780764178696
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 48