Julian Stanczak - Rain and Reflection

After reading Margot Livesey’s article titled “What makes good art?” from the Boston Globe I continued to do research regarding contemporary artwork. Like most people today would do, I started out by searching the term on Google to see what would come up. The artwork that came up was visually pleasing and nothing truly caught my attention. Since this attempt, and many similar attempts, was not successful I researched artists I am somewhat familiar with such as Jackson Pollock and Salvador Dali. However, they didn’t seem to fit the particular subject matter and didn’t seem like a right research topic either. After further investigation and review I had stumbled upon Julian Stanczak’s artwork titled “Rain and Reflection” which immediately caught my eye.

Now, when I say that it caught my eye it is not because of its appeal or the way it grabbed my attention. It was because of the idea that it appeared to be a series of black and white vertical lines with a few curves on the canvas to break up the monotony. The artwork just seemed like a dull and boring piece of art that did not really stir any inner emotions or processes. Feeling unsatisfied, I looked deeper into the artist as well and this particular work of art. “Rain and Reflection” was created in the 1960s which was a very important era for Stanczak. According to his website this is the era when Stanczak became known as one of the key contributors to the launch the Op Art movement through an exhibition he held in New York titled “Julian Stanczak Optical Paintings”. Specifically, his artwork during this time period is described as artwork where “rhythmically energized surfaces became more controlled, the lineal spacing tighter, color relationships more intense and often of opposing, vibrating wavelength.” (www.julianstanczak.net) Op Artists use contrasting colors as well as the functions of colors to make their art appear as optical illusions. Stanczak has been known for the layering he creates within his work which gives his art a certain depth to them.

After hearing facts such as these I became more interested in seeing other artworks based about the Op Art movement. There are hundreds of different pieces of art that are completely extraordinary to the eye. Their geometry, depth, and complexity cause the viewer to get lost within the canvas to look beyond and fall into a meditative state. Once I saw artwork such as these I had to look back at Stanczak’s “Rain and Reflection” with my new, enlightened, point of view. This time I looked at the image from a distance and focused my thoughts to try and understand the message. I also took some advice from Livesey’s article and used her practice of “repetition” to help me achieve my goal of understanding. Unfortunately I was not able to get a full grasp of the piece of art, I got lost in the changes within the vertical lines from black to white and the arbitrary curves or shapes over the vertical pattern. Currently I have an appreciation for most artworks, but eventually I hope to be able to comprehend and get lost within certain art movements as much as their enthusiasts.