Color for the perceptual organization of the pictorial plane: Victor Vasarely's legacy to Gestalt psychology

Abstract

Victor Vasarely's (1906–1997) important legacy to the study of human perception is brought to the forefront and discussed. A large part of his impressive work conveys the appearance of striking three-dimensional shapes and structures in a large-scale pictorial plane. Current perception science explains such effects by invoking brain mechanisms for the processing of monocular (2D) depth cues. Here in this study, we illustrate and explain local effects of 2D color and contrast cues on the perceptual organization in terms of figure-ground assignments, i.e. which local surfaces are likely to be seen as “nearer” or “bigger” in the image plane. Paired configurations are embedded in a larger, structurally ambivalent pictorial context inspired by some of Vasarely's creations. The figure-ground effects these configurations produce reveal a significant correlation between perceptual solutions for “nearer” and “bigger” when other geometric depth cues are missing. In consistency with previous findings on similar, albeit simpler visual displays, a specific color may compete with luminance contrast to resolve the planar ambiguity of a complex pattern context at a critical point in the hierarchical resolution of figure-ground uncertainty. The potential role of color temperature in this process is brought forward here. Vasarely intuitively understood and successfully exploited the subtle context effects accounted for in this paper, well before empirical investigation had set out to study and explain them in terms of information processing by the visual brain.

The visual communication impacts of Itten's color contrasts investigated and empirically tested as basic principles for use in art and design

“…In particular, lighter images appear to be closer when they are on a dark background. Dresp‐Langley and Reeves 1 mention that configuration with the weakest tonal contrasts tend to produce weaker depth effects.…”

“…Dresp‐Langley and Reeves 1 made experiments that showed red as being a color that, when used in a saturated form at the center of configurations, yields statistically higher probabilities for the perception of seeming to look nearer when compared to blue.…”

“…Artists' and designers' intuition, many times bring the correct color results, even though lacking the scientific background. For example, perception scientists Dresp‐Langley and Reeves mention that visual artist Vasarely's (1906–1997) intuition and own judgment on color contrasts made him produce works that conveyed properly two‐dimensional perception of spatiality the way he intended 1 . On the other hand, lack of scientific background in some artists' and designers' books, sometimes show questionable concepts, like the relationship between color and forms defended by Itten 2…”

Designing Color Symmetry in Stigmergic Art

“…For describing the significance and meaning of color in art, there is the dictum of the Hungarian-French 20th century painter and graphic designer Victor Vasarely [25]: "Every form is a base for color, every color is the attribute of a form." Put differently, if we see visual art as composed of geometrical objects, then color can be viewed as a property of these objects.…”

Human Symmetry Uncertainty Detected by a Self-Organizing Neural Network Map

“…Previous work using human two-alternative forced choice decision has shown that local color variations in two-dimensional pattern displays may significantly influence perceived relative distances [44][45][46][47]. In the present study, we use shapes that display perfect geometrical vertical mirror symmetry, as described further below here in Section 2.1, where visual uncertainty about symmetry is introduced by systematic variations in color (hue) and or saturation of local shape elements, leading to lesser or greater amounts of visual information content.…”