SEITZ, William C. [51] pp. The Museum of Modern Art 1965 9 1/2" x 8 1/2" VG Scroll Down for (12) Additional Scans: Many illustrations in color featuring the work of Bridget Riley, Frank Stella, Josef Albers et al. “The Responsive Eye,” a 1965 Museum of Modern Art exhibition that became known as the “height of the Op Art wave”1, as a way to investigate my imaginary show. “The Responsive Eye” was curated by William C. Seitz, an early scholar of Abstract Expressionism who was progressive in his understanding of optical systems used by surrealists, impressionists, neo-impressionists, and also the Bauhaus. Although he planned for the exhibition to reflect this progression in art history, he realized the current or new practices warranted an exhibition of their own. Seitz selected 102 artists who were quite literally researching how the eye responds to experiences with foundational elements of art such as color, pattern and light in time and space. That these artists came from 19 countries and varying political and cultural beliefs (many of them from fields such as design, architecture, science, sociology and psychology) revealed an international curiosity and focus on the phenomenology of perception. There were 123 works in the exhibition by well-known artists, such as Victor Vasarely, Josef Albers and Bridget Riley, as well as little-known collectives such as the Italian Gruppo N or the Spanish Equipo 57. The works provoked discussion that the process of seeing is not just mechanical: the nervous system is involved and thus changes our experiences, often disturbing expectations by offering alternative ways of seeing that had not yet been considered.
