Robert Delaunay Orphism was an abstract, cubist influenced painting style developed by Robert and Sonia Delaunay around , Rhythm n°1, Decoration for the Salon des Tuileries (middle) 'Endless Rhythm' 1934 (left) Circular Forms (Formes circulaires)Circular Forms (Formes circulaires), 1930 (above) French painter, born in Paris. Delaunay’s work developed into abstraction and he made numerous compositions with circular discs and colour rhythms, sometimes in low relief.relief The coloured discs strung out diagonally across the picture are so arranged that each one leads on to the next and the movement is directed back again into the picture at the two ends. Perhaps because of this infinitely looping effect, his wife Sonia considered Endless Rhythm to be the most appropriate title. The year after painting this, Delaunay was commissioned to paint murals for the Aeronautics pavilion at the 1937 Paris International Exhibition; the resulting compositions included discs, rings and colour rhythms on a huge scale.

Roy de Maistre In 1919 he devised a colour–music theory that allied the colours of the spectrum to musical scales. Rhythmic Composition in Yellow Green Minor (left) Arrested phrase from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in red major ENLARGE 1/1 (right) (Colour music) (circa 1934) (bottom) Australian painter and designer. The paintings are characterised by simplified forms, large areas of flat paint and heightened, non-representational colour.representational Further experiments in 1919 led de Maistre to produce Australia's first abstract paintings: only one documented example is known – Rhythmic Composition in Yellow Green Minorabstract

Bridget Riley In 1960 she evolved a style in which she explored the dynamic potentialities of optical phenomena. These so-called 'Op-art' pieces, such asFall, 1963 (below) (Tate Gallery), produce a disorienting physical effect on the eye.Op-art born 1931 in London. Op art was a major development of painting in the 1960s that used geometric forms to create optical effects. The effects created by op art ranged from the subtle, to the disturbing and disorienting. Op painting used a framework of purely geometric forms as the basis for its effects and also drew on colour theory and the physiology and psychology of perception. Leading figures were Bridget Riley, Jesus Rafael Soto, and Victor Vasarely. Bridget RileyJesus Rafael SotoVictor Vasarely ‘I try to organise a field of visual energy which accumulates until it reaches maximum tension’, Riley said of this work. From 1961 to 1964 she worked with the contrast of black and white, occasionally introducing tonal scales of grey. In Fall, a single perpendicular curve is repeated to create a field of varying optical frequencies. Though in the upper part a gentle relaxed swing prevails, the curve is rapidly compressed towards the bottom of the painting. The composition verges on the edge of disintegration without the structure ever breaking. Hesitate is one of a group of black and white paintings made by Riley in 1964 in which the titles imply emotional tension, for example Disturbance, Chill, Loss and Pause. The shapes were drawn first using a compass, and with templates for the larger ellipses; the smaller ones were drawn freehand. The shades of grey were judged by eye. Pause, 1964 (private collection) is similar in design to Hesitate, but with the ellipses forming a vertical line and the changes of tone reversed. Pause itself develops an idea in an earlier painting Movement in Squares, 1961 (Arts Council Collection), but with the rectangles replaced by ellipses and circles, and with the addition of the changes of tone.paintingstone