Perceptual Organization and Optical-Kinetic Art. Unraveling the Links between “Gruppo N” and the School of Psychology of Perception at the University of Padua

Here we report on the peculiar story that brings together science and art in the North-East of Italy, particularly in the city of Padua. Padua has a long tradition in visual perception studies, which dates back to 1919 when Vittorio Benussi established the teaching of experimental psychology and soon after a dedicated laboratory. After the Second World War, the laboratory gained increasing international recognition, thanks to the efforts of Fabio Metelli, a pupil of both Benussi and Cesare Musatti. Metelli was soon backed up by the school of psychology of perception created in Trieste by Gaetano Kanizsa, who graduated in Padua under Musatti. In parallel to the scientific study of visual perception at the university, Padua gave birth to “Gruppo N”, a flourishing art movement that broke onto the international stage between the late 1950s and early 1960s, highlighting an interesting correspondence (with several crossings) between vision research and art. The art produced by Gruppo N and the studies in perception conducted in Padua and Trieste have much in common. The observer can immediately capture the graphical resemblance of the artworks offered by members of Gruppo N and the stimuli presented by scientists such as Metelli and Kanizsa, who investigated the rules of perceptual organization in vision. This parallel was aided by logistical proximity and occasionally saw art and science interacting directly with one another. In our text, we describe this unusual link. We first provide a brief history of the development of psychology and the psychology of perception in this corner of the country. Subsequently, we offer the reader a brief introduction to Gruppo N and the art context surrounding it. Finally, we present vision studies and art side by side, providing the reader with examples of artworks that reveal this close connection.