Collection: Vasarely Victor

(Pecs 1908 - Paris 1997)

Hungarian painter and graphic artist naturalized as French, Victor Vasarely was the founder of the Optical Art movement.
In 1929, he enrolled at Mühely, a school founded by Alexandre Bortnyik following the principles of the Bauhaus in Dessau, where he developed the foundations of his research on geometric forms and visual perception. In 1930, he settled in Paris, where he began working as a graphic artist. In the early period, Vasarely created a plastic alphabet whose infinite combinations determined the birth of a cerebral and methodical art. He then gradually abandoned applied arts to focus on abstract painting.
In 1955, he published the Manifeste jaune, in which he defined the principles of kinetic and optical art. His compositions became increasingly complex: geometric elements combined, interlocked, permuted, and assembled, approaching cellular structure, producing effects of vibration and movement that seemed to challenge the immobility of the surface.
Vasarely was also interested in physics, architecture, and industry, and he wanted his language to be universal. In 1976, he inaugurated the Vasarely Foundation in Aix-en-Provence, a building he designed himself that embodied his vision of art integrated into urban space and collective life.
Vasarely's original lithographs and screen prints are the most direct translation of his research: printmaking, with its ability to work on flat areas and pure colors, was the natural tool for an artist who built everything on the interaction between form and color.
The gallery features his original lithographs and screen prints, along with the poster created for the 1988 Seoul Olympics, one of the last major public works of a career that spanned half a century of international art.