Lenticular printing: How the auto-stereoscopic ancient technique made its way to the contemporary art world

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Lenticular printing: How the auto-stereoscopic ancient technique made its way to the contemporary art world

by Shift Gallery

Lenticular technique has a fascinating history, starting from seventeenth century Royal portraits, to corporate advertising, kitsch memorabilia and contemporary art. For centuries, artists have been exploring ways to represent depth and movement.

One of the first applications of the lenticular effect was proposed by the French painter Gaspar Antoine de Bois-Clair in 1699. By dividing the portraits of both King Frederik IV and Queen Louise of Mecklenburg-Güstrow of Denmark into triangular strips and assembling them sequentially, he achieved to create a primitive type of flip picture, the “tabula scalata”. When viewed directly from the front, seemed like a chaotic arrangement of painted wood slats, but once viewed alternatively from the right and left, the viewer is able to see successively one image and the other.

Double Portrait of King Frederik IV and Queen Louise of Mecklenburg-Güstrow of Denmark, Gaspar Antoine de Bois-Clair, 1699. Oil painting on wood strips, laid on panel. Source: https://rauantiques.com/products/double-royal-portrait-by-gaspar-antoine-de-bois-clair?hasVideo=&variant=40014478508167

The method used by Bois-Clair to create this double portrait was the first known auto-stereoscopic mechanism: the barrier technique. Applied by Frederic E. Ives in 1903, it originated “Parallax Stereogram”, a stereo viewing aid placed on the picture instead of at the eyes. In 1906, the first commercial lenticular products were patented and marketed as “Puzzle Post Card” or “Photochange Post Card”, both using a very early version of a lenticular lens.

“The spirit of flowers” and “Crying baby”, 1906. Lenticular puzzle/photo change postcard. Source: https://www.etsy.com/listing/928399083/1906-puzzle-post-card-printed-so-baby

In 1908, Gabriel Lippmann suggests the use of a spherical optic screen as opposed to the barriers, even though “La Photographie Integral” wasn’t further developed at the time due to technical limitations. The first person to put this idea in practice was Maurice Bonnet, French photographer and inventor. Bonnet developed an improved lenticular screen and three equally improved cameras for this purpose. His process was fundamental to develop the curved light refracting lenses that decode the interlaced images into a moving graphic or a three dimensional image.

The advent of plastic rapidly substituted the glass previously used for the lenticular screens, bringing an opportunity for a much cheaper production and commercial viability, explored by Victor Anderson in the late 1940’s. His company “Vari-Vue”, gained popularity with the animation series for Kellog’s cereal boxes, with about 40 million of them produced. From postcards to political campaign buttons and magazine inserts, millions of simple lenticular images were produced by Anderson’s company over the years.

From this point on, a variety of big corporations recognised the advertising potential of these eye-catching moving images. Mass production became a reality when the first lenticular postcards were featured in a ‘Look Magazine” issue. A few years later, limited-edition cover of the Rolling Stone’s “Their Satanic Majesties Request” album, proposes a transition of lenticular from the advertising realm into the fine art world.

Limited edition Rolling Stones “Their Satanic Majesties Request”, 1967. Photographed by Michael Cooper. Lenticular three-dimensional photograph on paper cover. Source: https://mikeladano.com/2013/03/06/review-the-rolling-stones-their-satanic-majesties-request-1967

A growing number of artists started exploring the potential of this medium, with Yaacov Agam leading the way. A pioneer of the kinectic art movement, he produced a variety of lenticular prints during his career. Reflecting on ideas such as the fragility of time, motion and progress, the qualities of his pieces are sustained by those observing and interacting with them. The focus is on the dynamics between the artwork and the viewer. His son Ron Agam, followed his steps to continue to create otherwordly pieces to this day.

Yaacov Agam Museum, Rishon LeTsiyon, Israel. Source: https://en.yama.co.il/ / Yaacov Agam with one of his works. Source: https://stage.parkwestgallery.com/behind-the-artist-yaacov-agam/41625

Ron Agam with his works. Source: https://www.parkwestgallery.com/meet-the-artist-ron-agam/ + https://www.parkwestgallery.com/ron-agam-lenticular-art/

Another artist experimenting with this method, Roy Lichtestein creates “Fish and Sky” in 1967. A two color screenprint depicting a mountain landscape composed of Lichtenstein’s iconic dots and a photograph of the sky printed on silver gelatin are assembled on top of a lenticular lithograph of fish swimming.

While exploring new printing techniques, Damien Hirst re-created in 2012 his piece “For the Love of God” from 2007 in his first lenticular artwork. A diamond encrusted skull sculpture arises from a flat surface with the three dimensionality effect enabled by the lenticular effect. As the viewers move across the room, the face of the skull seems to follow them around.

Roy Lichtenstein, “Fish and Sky”, 1967. Color screenprint on silver gelatin photographic print mounted to lenticular offset lithograph on composition board with window mount. Source: https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.76410.html / Damien Hirst, “For the Love of God!, 2012. Lenticular digital printing mounted on Di-Bond. Source: https://www.paulstolper.com/artists/26-damien-hirst/works/58-damien-hirst-other-works/3253-damien-hirst-for-the-love-of-god-lenticularlarge-2012

Exploring the particularities of this technique since 2012, Rafaël Rozendaal creates hyper-colourful abstract lenticular pieces made from algorithm. The compositions were exhibited at “Everything You See Is In The Past” in New York’s Postmasters Gallery in 2013.

Rafaël Rozendaal, “Into Time”, 2013. Lenticular print mounted on canvas. Source: https://www.newrafael.com/lenticulars/ / Marina Abramović’s, “The Hero 25FPS”, 2022. GIF animation, 25 frames per second. Source: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/07/15/marina-abramovic-we-need-less-artists-and-more-heroes

Most recently, Marina Abramović also explored lenticular printing in her work “The Hero 25FPS”. A limited edition 21×21 cm print was created as a call for the courageous new heroes at this moment of collective history and for the ideas that will make our world better. The frames from “The Hero” (2001), show a woman on a white horse, transmitting a static and calm feeling, broke by the slight motion of the flag and hairs.

Taking a look at lenticular history and seeing how it made its way to the art world, this technology has allowed artists to explore motion and depth and to play with viewer interaction with different approaches. Bringing back this curious technology, Shift Gallery looks forward to push it even further by creating a space for new eye-tricking artworks and taking it into the web3 space.

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