"unlikely casting"

Get ready to be amazed by an exhibition filled with optical illusions and artistic sleight of hand! To separate what's real from what is a clever ruse in Fool The Eye, takes an alert eye and the willingness to examine art carefully. Enjoy the visual journey. Take a few steps to the right and observe, draw your conclusions about what you think you see. Then, a few steps to the left reveals a whole new image. The guesses multiply. Is it a flat surface or a sculpture? Is it a photograph or a painting? Is it made of wood or bronze, rubber or steel? Is it real or faux? Expect the unexpected through moments of fascination, intrigue, shock, and astonishment.

Fool the Eye, on view at the Nassau County Museum of Art from Saturday November 18, 2017 through March 4, 2018, challenges viewers to experience the wonder of masterful artistic techniques. This exhibition includes examples of traditional trompe l'oeil (meticulously painted, hyper-real images) and a wide range of other approaches to illusion. See larger-than-life oversized objects, hypnotic geometric abstractions, sculptures made of unexpected materials, images with mind-bending impossibilities and fine art so seemingly realistic, they are (nearly) indistinguishable from real things. The magic will provoke debates in every gallery about reality and deception.

The exhibiton includes  three Hirschfeld images: two drawings and an offset lithograph from the famous "Unlikely Casting" series. Hirschfeld, like many artists throughout the ages, was intrigued by perceptual illusions, devising visual tricks to manipulate the perception of space, incorporating spatial illusion as an aspect of his art. Featured in this exhibition are 20th- and 21st-century artists whose work has explored illusion, including Salvador Dali, Janet Fish, Audrey Flack, Jasper Johns, Judith Leiber, Roy Lichtenstein, Vik Muniz, Ben Schoenzeit, and Victor Vasarely.