Larry Poons

Larry Poons first achieved national recognition in 1965 when he exhibited at the major “Op” show, The Responsive Eye, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Acclaimed for his inventive, quirky colour work and fervor for articulating the painted surface, Poons has collections in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, Guggenheim, Tate Modern (UK), Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Hishhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Hunter Museum of American Art, Tennessee; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.; University of Virginia Art Museum, Charlottesville; and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

As part of the Colour Field movement, Poons can be classified as an early example of Op art, which forever changed our view of the painted canvas. As renowned art critic Clement Greenberg stated “the paintings do not merge with the surrounding space; they preserve their integrity and separate unity to be called…fields.”

Poons, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Kenneth Noland, and Julian Stanczak were among the first Americans who in the mid '70s experimented with what might be termed "devices" of pure design and color to sensitize and play tricks on the eyes: vibrating color combinations, perspective dislocations, moiré-like patterns, illusory distortions of form caused by alternating positive and negative designs, reversible images and other traditional optical illusions. The uncomplicated combination of color and dots allows a complex interaction between the piece and the viewer, encouraging a launch of the viewer’s imagination which in turn, creates a sense of movement.

Over the past four decades, Poons has continued to morph, reinvent and adapt his style. His finished work is dense, vibrant and often takes on an exhilarating air. Canvases reflect the constant motion in his process, whilst they appear to be optically alive.