Gianni Sarcone has produced a new series (although he has been working on them since 1997) of optic kinetic works he is calling his “Kinegrams”.

In Gianni’s words: “Kinegrams are interactive, static images that magically move as soon as the reader/viewer overlays them with a special film. Based on early optical principles, this new technique allows me to transform everyday objects into little movie machines… These optical applications produce true amazing effects with simple phase-motion patterns and stripe overlays — rivaling the classic motion picture toys of a century ago.”

You can find out exactly how Gianni’s kinegrams work and see many more of them here and here. There are also a number of interactive kinegrams on the second link to Gianni’s own site such as this one below. Click and hold the mouse button down over the right hand side box with the vertical lines and drag it over the left hand side image of the woman to see the effect.

Op Artist and Sculptor Mon Levinson – one of the original 100 artists exhibited at the famous 1965 “Responsive Eye” exhibition – has died on March 25 2014 at his home in Manhattan. He is survived by his wife Joan Gruzen.

White Moving Planes with Shadows (1968)
Mon Levinson
21 1/2 x 21 1/2 inches
Plexiglas and mixed media construction

Levinson was a prominent protagonist of the Op Art movement. The unusual mix of materials such as wood, clear and opaque vinyl sheets and plexiglass used in his works – which often fused together sculpture with more traditional painting techniques – made him a stand out artist in the field. His work was widely collected by organisations like MoMA, the Brooklyn Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington and MACBA – the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires.

Born in 1926, Levinson originally had no intention of becoming an artist and studied Economics as University. Meeting Richard Huelsenbeck in the 1950s changed the course of his life. Huelsenbeck was one of the founders of the Dada movement in Berlin who had moved to New York in 1936 after persecution by the Nazis. In New York, Huelsenbeck worked as a psychiatrist, practising at the Karen Horney Clinic in Long Island, New York. Levinson was a patient of his.

Mon Levinson
Light Play X (1968)
36 x 36 inches
Clear and Frost Plexiglas and light

Levinson’s work started to get exhibited in 1960. His first solo exhibition was in 1961 at New York’s Kornblee Gallery. The works that brought Levinson to the attention of the wider public were a series constructed from sheets of plexiglass cut with very fine lines. When overlaid these created a kind of moire pattern. Levinson adjusted the spacing between layers to alter the effect. Later, he used carefully positioned lights in his exhibitions to further enhance it.

Levinson continued to produce art and exhibit throughout his life. His final exhibition was in 2012 at D Wigmore Fine Art in Manhattan together with Julian Stanczak and Leroy Lamis.

Mon Levinson in 1968

Bridget Riley has created another stunning hospital installation, this time at St. Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. Work on the mural (physical work at the hospital – not design and preparation) started in September of last year (2013); the completed work was unveiled at the end of February 2014.

This is the second time that Bridget Riley has created a mural at a hospital – the first being in 1983 at the Royal Liverpool Hospital (you can see a photo of that installation on the Bridget Riley page). 

Of the mural, Bridget Riley said: ‘The hospital corridor paintings embrace the whole space; they aim to lift the spirits and to remind one of the life outside the hospital, while in no way interfering with the essential activities which must go on.‘ Sadly Bridget has had a lot of experience of hospitals. Fresh out of Goldsmith’s College, she spent 2 years nursing her father who had been involved in a very serious car accident, and I can’t help but feel these murals are an attempt by Bridget to give something back to the places that helped her father.

Rosemary Harris, the curator of the Imperial College Healthcare Charity Art Collection said: ‘The murals are stunning. They are really wonderful works which have transformed the clinical environment into an uplifting and beautiful place for patients and staff.’  That much is clear from the photos below which run from the preparatory work (you can see Bridget Riley in the first two images with paper mock-ups of the installation) right through to the final result.