Victor Vasarely is the most famous exponent of Op Art. Well-known to Parisians in the 1980s, his panels decorated with the effigy of his psychedelic, illusionist and abstract work were displayed everywhere. Art is in the city! Victor Vasarely was an artist who could best be described as a functionalist, heir to the Bauhaus and thus a proponent of total art (which leaves the easel to take in the whole city and habitat). In Aix-en-Provence, a foundation in his name, inaugurated in 1976, presents some forty of his monumental creations.
Victor Vasarely plays with our perception of space: he creates images that are two-dimensional, but which seem to step out of their frames and come to life before our very eyes. His two favorite shapes are the square and the hexagon. In a way, Victore Vasarely took the concept of Kasimir Malevich’s White Square on a White Background (1917) a step further, by setting it in motion. Colors and shapes are reduced, and the artist concentrates on the expression of movement (kinetic art). Among the few rarities, Victor Vasarely creates Le Christ et Saint-Pierre for Evry Cathedral, modernist masterpieces by architect Mario Botta, as well as stained-glass windows for a church in the Var region of France.
Vasarely believed that art should belong to everyone and that a work should be infinitely reproducible. He carefully prepares the models and has them reproduced on various supports in his studio or in factories.
Victor Vasarely
