Victor VASARELY 1906-1997
Master of OPART (Optical Art) and optical illusion
with incredibly vibrant paintings that confuse the eye and perception
Born in Budapest, Hungary, Vasarely moved to Paris in 1930.
He then worked as a graphic artist for advertising and began to develop graphic forms that would later be used.
In 1947, following a stay on Belle-Île-en-Mer, he drew inspiration from the pure forms of pebbles rolled by the waves.
In 1948, he discovered Gordes. He was fascinated by the destabilization of vision caused by the powerful contrasts of light and shadow on the angular geometry of the site. He then developed his own model of geometric abstract art, optokinetic art.
His early works from the 1950s were strongly Cubist, in the spirit of Malevich and Herbin.
In the 1960s, he worked on the theme of checkerboards using colored squares and circles. Symmetrical Science was born. He worked with IBM. His visual art appeared on numerous media: newspapers, magazines, records, television, etc.
In the 1970s, he turned to architecture and created his first "integrations": Montparnasse train station, RTL, Deutsche Bundesbank, etc. He designed the Renault logo for the launch of the car model R5 .
Major series punctuated his career in the 1960s and 1970s. He was inspired by an imaginary world and cosmic reveries with strange geometry: Vega, Vonal, Tridim, etc.
In 2019, the Centre Pompidou dedicated a great retrospective to him.
