Collection: Victor Vasarely

(Pecs 1908 - Paris 1997)

Hungarian-born French painter and graphic artist, Victor Vasarely was the founder of the Optical Art movement.
In 1929, he enrolled at Mühely, a school founded by Alexandre Bortnyik based on the principles of the Bauhaus in Dessau, where he developed the foundations of his exploration of geometric forms and visual perception. In 1930, he settled in Paris, where he began working as a graphic artist. In an early phase, Vasarely created a plastic alphabet whose infinite combinations gave rise to a cerebral, methodical art. He then gradually abandoned the applied arts in favor of abstract painting.
In 1955, he published Yellow Manifesto, 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 structures and producing effects of vibration and movement that seemed to challenge the stillness of the surface.
Vasarely was also interested in physics, architecture, and industry, and 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 artistic exploration: printmaking, with its ability to work with flat areas and pure colors, was the natural medium 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.