No. 7

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 built on the geometric abstraction of František Kupka and Kazimir Malevich and transformed it into a new direction: op-art, or optical art.

Using geometric shapes and colored graphics, he created impressive illusions of spatial depth. Vasarely's painting technique also drew on a number of influences, including the design principles of Bauhaus and Constructivism.

Even at the beginning of his artistic career, Vasarely experimented with light and shadow, and his favorite color was black. The results of this early graphic period were works such as Zebras (1937), Chessboard (1935), and Girl-power (1934).

He chose 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 that uses knowledge from geometry and optics. He died at the age of 90 on March 15, 1997, in Paris, France.