Art: OP ART: PICTURES THAT ATTACK THE EYE

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Much op art is removed from the artist's subjective discovery. It is the result of a mechanical muse, and the artist becomes a computer programmer churning out visual experiences. Some, like moiré patterns, suddenly reveal new sensations that man never knew were within his visible province. But is it therefore science and not art?

Perhaps. By analyzing wave lengths of visible light, scientists might well make the paintings on these pages. But they have not bothered, and if they had tried, the man-hours would have far outnumbered the time spent by artists using intuition. Still, what makes the end product not the same as waves on an oscilloscope? One artist has an answer. He is John Goodyear, 34, an associate professor of art at Rutgers University, whose work consists of gently moving colored lattices (above). Not as chilly an artist as most oppers, he lets his eight-year-old daughter pick his colors. Says Goodyear: "I want to include real space in my paintings, to squeeze it, negate it, play in it." From all that caprice, come surprises, and there is always the possibility of more. Says he, "These realities in some sense not conceived by man give us insight into a world which was certainly not conceived by man."