VICTOR VASARELY
Victor Vasarely (1906–1997) was a Hungarian-French painter, graphic artist, and sculptor. He grew up in Slovakia, but spent most of his life in France. He followed in the footsteps of František Kupka's and Kazimir Malevich's geometric abstraction and transformed it into a new movement: Op Art, or optical art.
Using geometric shapes and colorful graphics, he created impressive illusions of spatial depth. Vasarely's painting technique also drew from a range of influences, including the design principles of Bauhaus and Constructivism.
In 1930, Victor Vasarely moved to Paris, where he began as a commercial graphic designer, creating, for example, the logo for Renault. His preferred techniques were screen printing and serial production of works.
Early in his artistic career, Vasarely experimented with light and shadow, and his favorite color was black. This early graphic period resulted in works such as "Zebras" (1937), "Checkerboard" (1935), and "Girl-power" (1934).
He selected colors with mathematical precision – his goal was to create optical illusions and deceive the human eye. Victor Vasarely's work influenced not only architecture and promotional art but also decorative art and fashion.
In fine art, he is considered one of the representatives of kinetic art and Op Art, a movement utilizing knowledge from geometry and optics. He died at the age of 90 on March 15, 1997, in Paris, France.
