R Magazine, Ex-TeenArt_Issue 1_Authenticity Jun. 2015 | Page 95

Who is Vasarely ?
Victor Vasarely was born in Pécs, Hungary, in 1906. He pursued his academic
studies in medicine before applying in Fine
Arts and later at the Bauhaus school in Budapest. In 1930, he moved to Paris and
worked as an advertising designer for an
agency. He was already interested in optical
effects and kinetics, and with time, he rediscovered painting and abstract art for which
he has always had an affinity. Inspired by
cubism and surrealism, he engaged himself
in 2D graphic studies dominated by lines
and checkerboards during a period he would
soon call “fausses routes”. It was in 1938
that Vasarely painted “Zebra”, a set of lines
from which two embossed zebra seem to
come out. This canvas is considered today
as the first Op Art work.
« Every form is a base for colour, every
colour is the attribute of a form. »
Vasarely’s sojourns in Belle-Isle from 1947
to 1958 and in Gordes would forever impact his art. During his stay in Belle-Isle,
the artist developed his own abstract style.
He transformed raw materials into abstract
materials and he would used geometric
shapes, mainly ovoid, which illustrated “the
oceanic feeling”. He worked on his own abstract art model using a minimal number of
shapes and colours.
From there, Vasarely would further explore
these ideas. He first concentrated on the
creation of monumental art pieces and later on kinetics, which give the illusion of an
animated canvas or an illusory movement.

The artist further explored kinetics with his
work “Tribute to Malevitch” (1952-1958) by
creating a visual illusion where the square
shape would transform into a diamond
shape.
In the same way, Victor Vasarely started
his “Black and White” period in 1954-1960,
thus, creating black and white grids. He was
not the first artist to work on the concept of
movement and optical illusions, but Vasarely was always pursuing new possibilities.
Later on, in 1973, he brought back colour
into his work. He created an alphabet of elementary forms and a range of colors with
their degrades shades that he called “Planetary Folklore”.
Preoccupied with philosophy and humanism, the artist created the Educational Museum in the palace of Gordes in 1970 and
founded the Vasarely Foundation dedicated
to the beautification of the «artificial environment» in 1976. This foundation’s goal is
to promote the artist’s belief of a ‘city of tomorrow’ where art and architecture coexist
to provide «art for all».
“My goal was to create a common art treasure accessible to everyone, for the physical
and psychic good of the humanity.” (Vasarely – Expo d’Avignon 2003)
The artist died in Paris,