Every true artist has been inspired more by the beauty of lines and color and the relationships between them than by the concrete subject of the picture.
- Piet Mondrian
Colour helps to express light, not the physical phenomenon, but the only light that really exists, that in the artist's brain.
- Henri Matisse
 

 

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Felice Varini

Posted by Charley Parker at 6:15 am

Felice Varini
Felice VariniFelice Varini is an artist who paints on or in architectural elements in a way that creates the illusion of a flat pattern or object where one does not actually exist.

The illusion is visible only from one specific angle; when viewed from other points, you can see the fascinating series of markings that make up the piece. He paints on the outside of buildings, inside of rooms, in corridors, across walls, skylights, doors and archways, often creating the illusion of a physical object in space in the middle of an open area. His patterns are frequently optical patterns themselves, creating a sensation of Op Art by way of Christo.

At first it looks as if the pattern might be Photoshopped onto the image until you see the views from other perspectives; then the remarkable finesse with which Varini has created his patterned spaces becomes apparent. This work in particular is remarkable for it’s scale (not quite Christo scale, but pretty amazing nonetheless) in which he creates his illusory pattern across the space of a city street using painted markings on multiple buildings.

I learned about this from the gravestmor blog, which has a brief overview with a few sets of images. The Felice Varini site itself is harder to navigate, but worth the trouble. See my “Site Quirks” notes below.

Link via gravestmor.

 
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8 comments for Felice Varini »

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  1. Comment by valentina
    Saturday, January 21, 2006 @ 9:19 am

    like s. ignazio church in Rome (in the near of the Pantheon).
    fine!!!

  2. Comment by valentina
    Saturday, January 21, 2006 @ 9:25 am

    ehm ehm… the opposite :)

  3. Comment by Charley Parker
    Sunday, January 29, 2006 @ 4:23 pm

    Did he do a piece there are are you just talking about the church as interesting visually? (When I was in Rome, I was so struck by the Pantheon itself that I didn’t notice much about the buildings around it.)

  4. Pingback by WSP Links » The next trend in home decoration?
    Friday, February 10, 2006 @ 6:35 pm

    [...] 3D Painted Rooms 2 [...]

  5. Comment by Nikhil Shanbag
    Saturday, October 13, 2007 @ 7:08 am

    Varini’s work was the next thing after the tinkling stars that made me belive that multiple dimensions co-exist in this universe @ one Point in Time.. Interesting Point of view, huh??! :)

  6. Comment by Charley Parker
    Sunday, October 14, 2007 @ 12:57 am

    Hmmm…, point of view or points of view? ;-]

  7. Pingback by wk2.escher-op.art-optical illusions « Art, Science & Technology
    Sunday, October 14, 2007 @ 11:32 pm

    [...] Op-Artist Felice Varini [...]

  8. Comment by Kana.W
    Tuesday, April 22, 2008 @ 10:38 am

    That’s really cool.
    Specially here,
    http://pic.yupoo.com/jolreal/7442056aaf4c/medium.jpg
    Like a earth art.

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