Victor Vasarely (French:[viktɔʁvazaʁeli]; bornGyőző Vásárhelyi,Hungarian:[ˈvaːʃaːrhɛjiˈɟøːzøː]; 9 April 1906[1] – 15 March 1997) was a Hungarian-French artist, who is widely accepted as a "grandfather" and leader[2] of theOp art movement.
His work titledZebra, created in 1937, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op art.
Vasarely was born inPécs and grew up inPiešťany (then Pöstény) andBudapest, where, in 1925, he took up medical studies atEötvös Loránd University. In 1927, he abandoned medicine to learn traditional academic painting at the private Podolini-Volkmann Academy. In 1928/1929, he enrolled atSándor Bortnyik's private art school calledMűller (lit. "Workshop", in existence until 1938), then widely recognized as Budapest's center ofBauhaus studies. Cash-strapped, theműhely could not offer all that the Bauhaus offered. Instead, it concentrated on applied graphic art and typographical design.
In 1929, he painted hisBlue Study andGreen Study. In 1930, he married his fellow student Claire Spinner (1908–1990). Together they had two sons, Andre andJean-Pierre. Jean-Pierre was also an artist and used the professional name 'Yvaral'. He worked for a ball-bearing company in accounting and designing advertising posters in Budapest. Vasarely became a graphic designer and a poster artist during the 1930s combining patterns and organic images.
Outdoor Vasarely artwork at the church of Pálos inPécs (1977).Vasarely's expositions always had huge success. This is one from 1977 inAix-en-Provence.
Vasarely left Hungary and settled inParis in 1930. He worked as a graphic artist and as a creative consultant at the advertising agencies Havas, Draeger, andDevambez (1930–1935). His interactions with other artists during this time were limited. He thought of opening an institution modeled afterSándor Bortnyik'sműhely and developed some teaching material for it. Having lived mostly in cheap hotels, he settled in 1942/1944 inSaint-Céré in theLotdépartement. After theSecond World War, he opened anatelier inArcueil, a suburb about 10 kilometers from the center of Paris (in theVal-de-Marnedépartement of theÎle-de-France). In 1961, he finally settled inAnnet-sur-Marne (in theSeine-et-Marnedépartement).
Vasarely eventually went on to produce art and sculpture usingoptical 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 asZebras (1937),Chess Board (1935), andGirl-power (1934).
1944–1947:Les Fausses Routes – On the wrong track: During this period, Vasarely experimented withcubistic,futuristic,expressionistic,symbolistic andsurrealistic paintings without developing a unique style. Afterwards, he said he was on the wrong track. He exhibited his works in the gallery ofDenise René (1946) and the gallery René Breteau (1947). Writing the introduction to the catalogue,Jacques Prévert placed Vasarely among thesurrealists. Prévert creates the termimaginaries (images + noir, black) to describe the paintings.Self Portrait (1941) andThe Blind Man (1946) are associated with this period.
1947–1951:Developing geometric abstract art (optical art): Finally, Vasarely found his own style. The overlapping developments are named after their geographical heritage.Denfert refers to the works influenced by the white tiled walls of the ParisDenfert – Rochereau metro station.Ellipsoid pebbles and shells found during a vacation in 1947 at theBreton coast atBelle Île inspired him to theBelles-Isles works. Since 1948, Vasarely usually spent his summer months inGordes inProvence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. There, the cubic houses led him to the composition of the group of works labelledGordes/Cristal. 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 photographies: From hisGordes works he developed his kinematic images, superimposedacrylic 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 photographies in two colors.Tribute to Malevitch, a ceramic wall picture of 100 m2 (1,100 sq ft) adorns theUniversity of Caracas, Venezuela which he co-designed in 1954 with the architectCarlos Raúl Villanueva, is a major work of this period. Kinetic art flourished and works by Vasarely,Calder,Duchamp,Man Ray,Soto,Tinguely were exhibited at theDenise René gallery under the titleLe Mouvement (the motion). Vasarely published hisYellow Manifest. Building on the research ofconstructivist andBauhaus pioneers, he postulated thatvisual kinetics (plastique cinétique) relied on the perception of the viewer who is considered the sole creator, playing withoptical illusions.
1955–1965:Folklore planétaire, permutations, and serial art: On 2 March 1959, Vasarely patented his method ofunités plastiques. Permutations of geometric forms are cut out of a coloured square and rearranged. He worked with a strictly defined palette of colours and forms (three reds, three greens, three blues, two violets, two yellows, black, white, gray; three circles, two squares, two rhomboids, two long rectangles, one triangle, two dissected circles, six ellipses) which he later enlarged and numbered. Out of thisplastic alphabet, he startedserial art, an endless permutation of forms and colours worked out by his assistants. (The creative process is produced by standardized tools and impersonal actors which questions the uniqueness of a work of art.) In 1963, Vasarely presented his palette to the public under the name ofFolklore planetaire.
1965–:Hommage à l'hexagone, Vega: TheTribute to the hexagon series consists of endless transformations of indentations and relief adding color variations, creating aperpetual mobile of optical illusion. In 1965 Vasarely was included in theMuseum of Modern Art exhibitionThe Responsive Eye, created under the direction ofWilliam C. Seitz. HisVega series plays with spherical swelling grids creating an optical illusion of volume.
Kezdi-Ga, 1970, Screenprint in colours, Edition of 250, 50.8 cm × 50.8 cm (20.0 in × 20.0 in)Facade ofRTL radio headquarters in Paris, aluminium blinds with graphics and backlight, 1972[3]
In October 1967, designerWill Burtin invited Vasarely to make a presentation to Burtin's Vision '67 conference, held at New York University. On 5 June 1970, Vasarely opened his first dedicated museum with over 500 works in a renaissance palace inGordes (closed in 1996). A second major undertaking was theFoundation Vasarely inAix-en-Provence, a museum housed in a distinct structure specially designed by Vasarely. It was inaugurated in 1976 by French presidentGeorges Pompidou, two years after his death. The museum is now in a state of disrepair, several of the pieces on display have been damaged by water leaking from the ceiling. Also, in 1976 his large kinematic objectGeorges Pompidou was installed in theCentre Pompidou in Paris and the Vasarely Museum located at his birthplace inPécs, Hungary, was established with a large donation of works by Vasarely. In the same decade, he took a stab at industrial design with a 500-piece run of the upscaleSuomi tableware byTimo Sarpaneva that Vasarely decorated for the German Rosenthalporcelain maker'sStudio Linie.[4] In 1982, 154 specially createdserigraphs were taken into space by the cosmonautJean-Loup Chrétien on board the French-Soviet spacecraftSalyut 7 and later sold for the benefit ofUNESCO. In 1987, the second Hungarian Vasarely museum was established in Zichy Palace in Budapest with more than 400 works.
^Phillips, Edward (2020). "Victor Vasarely distinctions: Critics Award Brussels & Gold Medal at Milan Triennale".Trinity College Dublin Art Collections.
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