Lynn Leland

Lynn Leland was a pioneering American artist in the Op Art movement in the early 1960s. His work was included in the influential exhibition 'The Responsive Eye', held at The Museum of Modern Art in 1965, the first major US museum show to focus on the new movement. Following this, Leland's work was included in other Op Art shows in the 1960s, including the following group exhibitions; Albright-Knox Museum, 1960; Brooklyn Museum Biennial, 1960; "Optics & Kinetics", Ohio University, 1965-66; "Multiplicity", ICA, Boston, 1966; The Jewish Museum, 1966 (works from the Harry Abrams collection).

Leland was born in 1937 in Buffalo, NY. He studied at Pratt Institute in New York, and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Europe in 1961, where he attended the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg studying with the British sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi.

Returning to New York, he exhibited at The Preston Gallery and A.M. Sachs Gallery and, on the recommendation of the curator Henry Geldzahler, his work was included in the influential exhibition 'The Responsive Eye', held at The Museum of Modern Art in 1965. Throughout the 1960s, Leland's abstract work remained focused on the optical effect of ordered grids of colored circles - based partially on the artist's interest in contemporary musical composition.

Submitted by Francis Frost