And You See When You Don't

Man, it turns out, sees op art even with his eyes shut. It comes in the form of scintillating, phantom-like geometries called phosphenes that dance inside the eyes like an attack of Technicolor vertigo in Times Square. Not afterimages, phosphenes are produced by the stimulation of the retina rather than by real light. Children toy with them by squeezing their eyes shut and observing what visions seem to swim against their closed eyelids. Adults, however, tend to reject them in favor of more materialistic daydreams. To see them, simply close the eyes for a minute or more, then press gently on the outer corners of the eyeballs and enjoy the show.

Phosphenes can be induced more rigorously. "Seeing stars" can come from a bash on the head. And, as Ben Franklin discovered, electricity will spark the eerie, floating effects. Now a New York physicist and sometime op artist, Gerald Oster, 47, has set down with his eyes open what he sees with them closed. His impressions, done in glowing phosphorescent paint, went on view last week in Manhattan's Howard Wise Gallery.

"Most of us are unconscious of what we see," says Oster. "These paintings make the viewer aware of what a wonderful mechanism the eye is." He further believes that "these strange geometric forms may be a manifestation of our inner orderliness." But for those who find art in the playful purities of geometry, phosphenes also suggest that artists need never open their eyes, and that people have museums in their heads.

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