Victor Vasarely

Pécs (Hungría), 1907

Victor Vasarely, born Vásárhelyi Győző (9 April 1906 – 15 March 1997), was a Hungarian-French artist, who is widely accepted as a “grandfather” and leader of the short-lived op art  movement.

His work entitled Zebra, created in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of op art.

In Budapest, he worked for a ball-bearings company in accounting and designing advertising posters. Vasarely became a graphic designer and a poster artist during the 1930s combining patterns and organic images with each other.

Vasarely left Hungary and settled in Paris in 1930. He worked as a graphic artist and as a creative consultant at the advertising agencies (1930–1935). Vasarely eventually went on to produce art and sculpture using optical illusion.. Over the next three decades, Vasarely developed his style of geometric abstract art, working in various materials but using a minimal number of forms and colours:

• 1929-1944: Early graphics: Vasarely experimented with textural effects, perspective, shadow and light. His early graphic period resulted in works such as Zebras (1937), Chess Board (1935), and Girl-power (1934).
• 1944-1947: Les Fausses Routes – On the wrong track: During this period, Vasarely experimented with cubistic, futuristic, expressionistic, symbolist and surrealistic  paintings without developing a unique style.
• 1947-1951: Developing geometric abstract art (optical art): Finally, Vasarely found his own style. He worked on the problem of empty and filled spaces on a flat surface as well as the stereoscopic view.
• 1951-1955: Kinetic images, black-white photography’s: From his Gordes works he developed his kinematic images, superimposed acrylic glass panes create dynamic, moving impressions depending on the viewpoint. In the black-white period he combined the frames into a single pane by transposing photography’s in two colours. Kinetic art flourished and works by Vasarely, Calder, Duchamp, Man Ray, Soto, Tonguely were exhibited under the title Le Mouvement (the motion). Vasarely published his Yellow Manifest.
• 1955-1965: Folklore planétaire, permutations and serial art: He worked with a strictly defined palette of colours and forms which he later enlarged and numbered. Out of this plastic alphabet, he started serial art, an endless permutation of forms and colours worked out by his assistants.
• 1965-: Hommage à l’hexagone, Vega: The Tribute to the hexagon series consists of endless transformations of indentations and relief adding color variations, creating a perpetual mobile of optical illusion.

Here you can see the artist's works that are part of the collection.