Victor Vasarely

Victor Vasarely (1906-1997)

Victor Vasarely was born in Hungary in 1906, as Gyözö Vásárhelyi.

He moved to Paris in 1930, where he worked successfully as a commercial graphic artist.  All the while, he was researching the optical and emotional opportunities of several different graphical methods.  He came to the result that geometrical means can create sensual perceptions that convey new ideas about space, matter and energy.  He created an independent geometric abstraction whose variations lead to image patterns with kinetic effects.

The artist arranged a wattle of geometric forms in bright colors so that the eye perceives it as a fluctuating movement.  Vasarely had a huge influence on the Op art, and is sometimes even named as one of its founders.

He participated regularly in the documenta between 1955 and 1968, and designed the official logo for the XX. Olympics in Munich.  The Vasarely Museum, established in 1976, can be found in his city of birth, Pécs.  A second one, opened in 1987, is located in the castle Zichy in Budapest.

Victor Vasarely died in 1997, in Paris.