Victor Vasarely by Christine Bebawy Drawing I

Victor Vasarely

Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian-French painter and sculptor. Victor Vasarely was born in Vasarely Gyozo in Pecs, Hungary, on April 9, 1906, but was active in France for most of his career (Collection Online). The artist Sanor was Vasarely’s teacher at the Muhely academy. Victor is considered the founder of the Op art. Op art is related to the visual arts and it uses optical illusions. Victor Vasarely used abstract art and kinetic art in his paintings. Kinetic art is related to the movements visible for the viewers. The viewer could move around the painting in order to see the effects of movements on the painting. Victor’s paintings are also called geometric arts/paintings. This is due to the use of geometric shapes and patterns to add depth to his paintings. One example is in his word Vega-Nor (1969).

Vega-Nor (1969)

https://www.albrightknox.org/artworks/k196929-vega-nor

Victor used his experience in designing to make designs and graphic arts. The things that Victor learned in the academy helped him a lot and had an impact on his later work (Collection Online).

One of the important art paintings by Victor Vasarely was Zebra (1937).

Zebra (1937)

http://pictify.saatchigallery.com/399765/victor-vasarely

This work was created when Victor was a graphic designer in Paris. It consists of two zebras “twine around each other against a black background” (Victor Vasarely). This painting is considered one of the earliest works of Op art (Victor Vasarely). This painted was painted with Acrylic on Canvas.

This painting is called Sophia (1954).

Sophia (1954)

https://patrimoniocuc.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/sophia-victor-vasarely/

“Sophia consists of a grid-like of black set against the white background, creating subtle various illusions of movement three-dimensionality” (Victor Vasarely). Victor was inspired by many things including, the cracked white tiles, and the Denfert-Rocherau station of the Paris subway which helped him to create his painting Sophia. Another painting is Vega III (1957-59).

Vega III (1957-59)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/islespunkfan/7688438230

This painting is an example of an iconic visual effect with special square-like patterns to create illustrations. Victor used the kinetic art to generate and add motion into his painting. “Vega III can also be seen as a visual enactment of the ideas outlined in Vasarely’s Yellow Manifesto, published in 1955 to coincide with the influential Op Art exhibition Mouvement, held at the Gallery Denise René in Paris” (Victor Vasarely). In this painting, Victor also used two dimensional to increase the effect of motion which is shown in the painting. Such paintings make the viewers active not passive because views will have to move around the picture in order to see all the motions and other effects during their movement around the painting. Victor Vasarely has many other works. Victor had used black and white as in his work Zebra. This painting has the kinetic effect and the optical illusions. It is very clear that most of Victor’s paintings seem as if they are moving and this proves if they have optical illusions or not. Other paintings are The Chess Board (1935), Bora III (1964), Riu-Kiu-C (1960), and Yvaral (1956). All of those paintings have the same basic idea with different repeated patterns and geometric shapes added to them. They also have visual effects to give them some movements and depth. Finally, Victor’s paintings were greatly precise work of a great artist.