Victor Vasarely

Victor Vasarely is considered one of the most influential artists of the last century and is widely regarded as the father of the Op Art movement, a short-lived but influential movement in the mid 1900s. With a focus on carefully composed optical illusions and repeating patterns, the Op Art movement has gone on to influence abstract and geometric art for decades. After abandoning his medical studies at Budapest University in the early nineteen-twenties, Vasarely was influenced by the work of Joseph Albers, pursuing the study of color theory. Vasarely’s later graphic studies include his series of zebras, chessboards, flowers and spirals, through which he explored what he considered the two greatest tenants of artistic creation, “pure color” and “pure form.” In addition to his flat works, Vasarely also moved from two-dimensional forms with three-dimensional effects directly into three-dimensions, making sculptural works based on his renowned optical illusions.

Vasarely has had major museum shows and retrospectives at a large number of international institutions, including Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switzerland, Musée Communal des Beaux-Arts, Charleroi and Fondation Vasarely, Aix-en-Provence, France, Musée Olympique, Lausanne, France, National Museum of Fine Arts, Algiers, Algeria, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aries, Argentina, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Strasbourg, France, Galerie Lahmière, Paris, France.