Victor Vasarely
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Victor Vasarely
Terries, II
1973-1975, Acrylic on canvas, 201 x 118 cm -
Victor Vasarely
Terries, II
1973-1975, Acrylic on canvas, 201 x 118 cm -
Untitled OP
End 1980s, Acrylic / C, 63,5 x 63,5 cm -
Untiled VD
1969, Acrylic / B, 80 x 80 cm -
Untitled KK
Mid 70s, Acrylic / c, 100 x 100 cm -
Bianco
1987, oil on canvas 120x120cm -
Cell
1970, acrylic on canvas, 106 x 103 x 5cm -
Hexa 5
1988, collage made of self-adhesive foil/plastic board, 70 x 100 cm -
Vaar
1970, acrylic on canvas, 215 x 183cm
Biography
Victor Vasarely studied at the Podolini-Volkmann Academy in Budapest. He later attended the Mühely School of Graphic Arts, run by Sándor Bortnyik in the Bauhaus tradition. In 1930, he moved to Paris, where he worked as a commercial artist between 1930 and 1940, mainly designing posters. He developed an interest in trompe-l'œil (French for “deceive the eye”), graphic patterns and illusions of space. From 1944, he devoted himself exclusively to painting. In this year, he exhibited for the first time at the Galerie Denise René in Paris. Here he showed figurative motifs as well as chessboard patterns and contradictory patterns. From 1947 onwards, Vasarely concentrated on constructively geometric, abstract motifs. In the 1950s, he developed his program of kinetic art. In his Yellow Manifesto (Manifest Jaune) for the group exhibition Le Mouvement at Denise René (1955), he called for the artwork as a prototype - with the characteristics of repeatability as serial reproducibility and the applicability of its forms beyond art. He fulfilled these requirements: His own paintings and sculptures are now characterized by the aggressive interplay of standardized basic forms and colors, which are put together in various ways to form patterns. He lived in Annet-sur-Marne from 1961. Victor Vasarely won numerous international art prizes in 1965 and 1967. He participated in documenta 1 (1955), documenta II (1959), documenta III (1964) and the 4th documenta in Kassel in 1968. In 1972, he developed a new diamond logo in the style of Op Art for the automobile company Renault. Vasarely received the Guggenheim Prize in New York in 1964. He was made a Knight of the Order of Art and Literature in Paris in 1965. Further prizes were: Grand Prize of the VIII. Biennial of São Paulo, and in 1970 he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor. His son Jean Pierre (1934-2002) became known as an artist under the name Yvaral. Victor Vasarely died in Paris in 1997 after suffering from cancer.
Art is artificial and by no means natural. To create is not to imitate nature, but to equal and even surpass it by means of an invention of which only man is capable among all living things.
Museum and single exhibitions (selection)
2024
The third dimension in the picture, group exhibition, all year round,Works by artists of OP art and kinetic art such as Yaacov Agam, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Francois Morellet, Jesus Rafael Soto, Victor Vasarely, Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker meet the holography pioneers newly integrated into the Würth Collection for the first time, Kunsthalle Würth
2023
Victor Vasarely | Another Dimension, A&R Fleury, Paris, France
2020
Victor Vasarely, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada
2019
Vasarely - Hommage á 1969, Vasarely Museum, Budapest, Hungary
Victor Vasarely / 1940-1990, Galerie Moderna - Auctions and Exhibitions, Prague, Czech Republic
Victor Vasarely: Peintures, Collages Et Multiples, Galerie Gimpel & Müller, Paris, France
Vasarely - Sharing Forms, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Victor Vasarely - une aventure de 75 ans chez denise rené, Galerie Denise René, Paris, France
2018
Victor Vasarely, Städel Museum, Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Victor Vasarely - Ter-F2, Muzeum Umeni Olomouc, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Victor Vasarely: El Nacimiento Del Op Art, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain
2017
Victor Vasarely, AJG - Ales South Bohemian Gallery, Hluboká nad Vltavou, Czech Republic
Victor Vasarely, Repetto Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2016
Victor Vasarely, Davidson Gallery, New York City, United States
Victor Vasarely - The Absolute Eye, Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT, United States
2015
Victor Vasarely - New Acquisition II, Muzeum Umeni Olomouc, Olomouc, Czech Republic
2014
Victor Vasarely - The joy of movement, Koller Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
Victor Vasarely - Optical Paintings, Espoo Museum of Modern Art (EMMA), Espoo, Finland
Victor Vasarely – Early Drawings and Graphic Designs in the Collection, Museum of Fine Arts Budapest, Budapest, Hungary
2013
Victor Vasarely, Museo Rayo - Museo de dibujo y grabado latinoamericano, Roldanillo, Colombia
Vasarely - Hommage, Musée d'Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium
Optical Spaces, Museum of Geometric and MADI Art, Dallas, TX, United States
2011
Victor Vasarely: Optical Perspectives, Cafesjian Center for the Arts, Yerevan, Armenia
Victor Vasarely, National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
2010
Viktor Vazareli - Grafike i objekti, Museum Of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia
2009
Victor Vasarely, Mathematikum e.V., Gießen, Germany
Imagen Inestable, Galería Animal, SantiagoChile
2008
Victor Vasarely - "GRÁFICA" / Sala Gráfica, Galería Patricia Ready, Santiago, Chile
Victor Vasarely: Works from the Tibor Csepei's Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje, Skopje, North Macedonia
2007
Victor Vasarely, Muzeum Umeni Olomouc, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Victor Vasarely, Kunstmuseum Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
2005
The absolute eye, Herakleidon Museum, Athens, Greece
Victor Vasarely - Die Täuschung, Kunsthalle Krems, Krems, Austria
2003
An Optical Experience: Works on Paper from the Permanent Collection, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, United States
Victor Vasarely, Galleria Melesi, Lecco, Italy
Victor Vasarely, Robert Sandelson, London, United Kingdom
Victor Vasarely, Milan Dobes Museum, Bratislava, Slovakia
2001
Victor Vasarely, Museum gegenstands freier Kunst, Otterndorf, Germany
2000
Victor Vaserely, Kunstverein Aurich e.V. / Kunstpavillon am Ellernfeld, Aurich, Germany
Viktor Vasarely - Späte Werkeanders galerie im stilwerk, Dusseldorf, Germany
Späte Werke, Art Edition Fils, Dusseldorf, Germany
Selected Works of Victor Vasarely, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA), Tehran, Iran
Vasarely, Fundación Juan March, Madrid, Spain