Victor Vasarely

Biography of Victor Vasarely

Father of Op Art (or Kinetic Art), Victor Vasarely is a Hungarian visual artist, born in Pécs in 1906, naturalized French in 1961, and died in Paris in 1997.

Initially interested in medicine, he quickly interrupted his studies to join the Fine Arts Academy of Budapest, and then the resurrected Bauhaus in the Hungarian capital. The works of Kandinsky, as well as those of Mondrian or Delaunay, caught his attention. His research initially led him to work in two tones (black and white), reaching its first peak in 1939 with "Zebra".

Settled in Paris with his wife Claire for a decade, he worked for the advertising agency Havas and also for Draeger, the printer (notably for the famous Verve dedicated to Matisse's Jazz). His early works (now recognized as having given birth to Op Art) show that his research is based on the idea that it is the viewer's eye that creates the work; his way of apprehending the canvas is an integral part of the work.

From 1960 onwards, he introduced color (vibrant, powerful, and controlled) into his works, while maintaining two-color units, but also approaching the cellular structure, to create a kind of pictorial alphabet that would become a universal language. It was at this point that he began to consider the synergy between art, architecture, and urbanism. From 1966, Vasarely laid the foundations for a foundation that would bring together visual artists and urban planners (in the broad sense) to integrate art into the city and everyday life.

In 1964, the Guggenheim Prize internationally crowned his work, while the following year, the exhibition "Responsive Eye" at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York definitively established Op Art as one of the great movements of the 20th century. In 1972, Renault, wishing to expand internationally, entrusted Vasarely with the task of dusting off its old logo. The Renault 5 was the first to sport the new streamlined diamond, from which the brand name disappeared...

The monumental works undertaken in the 1960s and 1970s are now scattered in many cities. The Vasarely Foundation in Aix-en-Provence, as well as the museum of the Chateau de Gordes, like the museums of Pécs (his hometown) and Budapest, Hungary, allow a better understanding and apprehension of his work, gigantic, complex, and fabulously modern.

© Natacha PELLETIER for PASSION ESTAMPES