Victor Vasarely

From Monoskop
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Victor Vasarely (1906, Pécs, Hungary - 1997, Paris) was a Hungarian visual artist and one of the leading members of the Op Art movement. Throughout his life, he was fascinated by theories of perception and visual perception heuristics. He studied at Sándor Bortnyik’s private art academy in Budapest. Bortnyik, a painter and graphic designer, was inspired by Bauhaus practices and philosophies. After completing his studies, Vasarely emigrated to Paris where he began working for advertising agencies, designing promotional posters. Throughout his artistic career, he sought to find his own voice. His initial focus was on figurative art, until he was swayed by the artistic practices of Kazimir Malevich. Ultimately, he set his sights on the study of optical illusions. In 1955, he took part in the groundbreaking Le Mouvement exhibition of kinetic art at the Galerie Denise René in Paris. Victor Vasarely’s art was the fruit of multiple visual languages programmed to compose infinite permutations of form and color. (Source)

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

Catalogues
  • Victor Vasarely, Zagreb: Galerija suvremene umjetnosti, 1968. (Croatian)
  • Robert C. Morgan, Vasarely, Naples Museum of Art, and New York: George Braziller, 2004, 127 pp.
Links