Section 9: Art & Vision: March Bands

Section 9: Art & Vision: March Bands

Visual perception; Optical illusions; Mach bands; Psychophysics; Gestalt psychology; Lateral inhibition; Edge detection; Contrast perception; Minimalism (Art); Painting theory; Physiology of perception; Art and science; Boundaries in art; Retinal processing; Color theory

A twenty-page theoretical essay examining the physiological and psychological principles underlying visual perception, specifically focusing on the optical phenomenon known as Mach bands. Named after nineteenth-century Austrian physicist Ernst Mach, who first described the effect in 1865, Mach bands are illusory bright and dark stripes that viewers perceive at the edges where adjacent areas of differing brightness meet, caused by lateral inhibition among retinal neurons that enhances edge detection in the human visual system. Baer applies her graduate training in physiological psychology from the New School for Social Research to explore how these perceptual mechanisms relate to the experience of edges, boundaries, and contours in modern abstract painting. The essay connects scientific understanding of how the eye processes visual information, particularly contrast intensification at borders where light areas appear lighter and dark areas appear darker, to aesthetic concerns central to minimalist art practice. Baer, a leading minimalist painter who studied biology and Gestalt psychology, argues for painting's continued relevance against claims by minimalist sculptors that the medium had become obsolete, demonstrating how her own geometric works engage fundamental aspects of human vision through their emphasis on boundaries between fields of color.

Baer, Jo, 1929-2025

Roaring Fork Pres (New York, N.Y.)

Fall-Winter 1970-1971

Graham, Dan, 1942-2022 (Editor); Maciunas, George, 1931-1978 (Designer); Johnson, Phyllis, 1926-2001 (Publisher)

Is part of Aspen Magazine No. 8 (Fall-Winter 1970-1971); Author also created cover painting for this issue; Related to Baer's minimalist paintings of 1960s-1975; Connected to debates about painting versus sculpture in minimalist art; References Ernst Mach's discoveries (1865); Informed by Baer's graduate studies at New School for Social Research in physiological psychology; Part of broader discourse on perception in 1960s minimalism; Preceded Baer's 1975 Whitney Museum retrospective

20-page printed booklet; Text with possible diagrams or illustrations

English

Theoretical essay; Art criticism; Scientific analysis; Artist's writing; Interdisciplinary text

Temporal: 1965-1971 Spatial: New York, N.Y. Aspen, CO.