1906 | born in Pécs, Hungary, as Gyözö Vásárhelyi |
1927 | Education at a private drawing school in Budapest |
1928 | Imparts Bauhaus ideas at the "Mühely" (engl. "Workshop") training school |
1930 | Moves to Paris in 1930; works as a commercial artist |
1947 | Striving for sensual sensations with geometric means; development of a characteristic abstraction that incorporates kinetic effects |
1954 | Design of the university in Caracas |
1955/62/68 | Participation in Documenta |
1972 | Development of the logo for the XX. Olympiad in Munich |
1976 | Establishment of the Foundation Vasarely in Aix-en-Provence; opening of the Vasarely Museum in Pécs |
1987 | Opening of the Vasarely Museum in Zichy Castle, Budapest |
1997 | died in Paris |
Victor Vasarely is probably the most famous representative of Op Art. In 1947, his work as a commercial artist led him to realize that geometric abstractions could evoke sensations that conveyed new ideas about space, matter, and energy. Vasarely usually arranges geometric figures in bright colors in a latticework in such a way as to create the impression of fluctuating movement. By means of foreshortened lines, angles that become obtuse or more acute, and circular forms progressively stretched into ovals, the artist models the pictorial space and gives it a pulsating three-dimensional effect. Vasarely's aesthetic approach is entirely in the tradition of constructive geometric art, but he enriches it with new visual experiences, the illusionistic representation of three- or multi-dimensionality and the factor of movement.