Art History 101: Op Art

Begging your kind indulgence, we've left the vast tangle of Renaissance art (temporarily) this week, to sneak a peek at all the fun they had in the 1960s with Op Art. It is with great, fond nostalgia that Your Guide remembers a cherished pair of shiny vinyl, side-zippered, Op-patterned Go-Go boots; perhaps a bold - even ill-advised - fashion statement for an elementary school-aged child, but one which was worn (and worn...and worn) proudly, and one for which her Respectable parents should, however belatedly, be thanked.

Today in Art History:

• Francisco Zurbarán (Spanish Baroque painter), baptized in 1598

• Erasmus Quellin, II (Flemish Baroque painter), died in 1678

• Joni Mitchell (Canadian painter), born in 1943