Victor Vasarély

Victor Vasarély (1908-1997), French painter, sculptor, and graphic artist of Hungarian birth, who is recognized not only as the creator of Op Art but of one of the most successful Op Artists.

He was born in Pécs and, forsaking the medical studies he had begun in Budapest, attended the Polodini-Volkmann Academy in 1927, then (1928-1929) the Mühely Academy (the “Bauhaus of Budapest”), where Laszló Moholy-Nagy was one of his teachers and where he encountered the work of Mondrian, Malevich, Kandinsky, and Gropius. In 1930, he settled in Paris, where he initially worked as a commercial graphic artist. He acquired French nationality in 1959.

Vasarély's interest in geometrical abstractions, and the potential of using them to produce striking visual effects, began in the late 1940s. The basic components were squares, circles, and triangles, and horizontal and vertical parallel lines; by drawing lines at varying distances from one another and introducing undulations, Vasarély created the illusion of three-dimensional space. He later introduced vibrant colours, which further enhanced the optical illusion. In their fully developed form, Vasarély's geometrical abstractions produce mesmerizing, almost hallucinatory effects that entrap the eye and often create a very immediate sensation of movement. For example, VEGA PER (1969, Honolulu Academy of Arts) is a canvas covered with an overall pattern of red and green dots. By the manipulation of foreshortening and perspectival effects, the centre of the picture plane appears to balloon out at the viewer, in the manner of a net into which a football has been thrust. Other compositions lead the eye headlong into illusory tunnels or corridors formed by squares that “disappear” in the “depths” of the canvas. Vasarély called this technique “cinétisme”.

Vasarély's paintings are some of the most powerful examples of Op Art. He was very influential on younger Op Artists and was instrumental in forming the Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel in Paris. A large collection of his work is on display in the Musée Vasarély, which the artist opened at the Château de Gordes, near Aix-en-Provence, in 1970. He also worked as a sculptor, and collaborated with architects, producing a mural and an aluminium relief for the University of Venezuela (1967) and contributing to the design of the French pavilion at Expo '67 in Montreal.