Created in 1988, this hand painted acrylic on wood sculpture is hand signed by Victor Vasarely (1906 – 1997) in red ink in the lower right and numbered 159/175 in black ink the lower left (aside from 18 artists proofs and some HCs). Published by Circle Fine Art Corporation. Executed with a balance of color and form, this work creates an optical effect of relief through the use of shape and tones. Its grand scale and large size works in combination with its dazzling array of color to allow for an explosion of Vasarely’s creativity, abstraction, and geometric innovation through his wooden sculpture. Using a variety of hues in blue, red, green, and purple, the artist captures the viewer’s attention with the visual effect of two three dimensional forms on a flat surface . Visually engaging, this work is vibrant and creates a sense of motion through the use of a variety of lights and darks. Discussing his thoughts on abstraction, Vasarely stated, “The celebrated transition from representational to nonrepresentational art is only one of the stages in profound transformation taking place in the plastic arts. The term ‘abstract’ in painting refers not to an established fact, but to an irresistible trend toward plastic creation different from the kind we already know.” (Vasarely 1978, 13).

Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian-French artist, who is widely accepted as a "grandfather" and leader of the Op art movement. His work titled Zebra, created in 1937, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op art. Victor Vasarely was a French-Hungarian artist credited as the grandfather and leader of the Op Art movement. Utilizing geometric shapes and colorful graphics, the artist created compelling illusions of spatial depth, as seen in his work Vega-Nor (1969). Vasarely’s method of painting borrowed from a range of influences, including Bauhaus design principles, Wassily Kandinsky, and Constructivism. Born Győző Vásárhelyi on April 9, 1906 in Pécs, Hungary, he briefly studied medicine, but after two years he dedicated himself to learn academic painting. In the late 1920s, Vasarely enrolled at the Muhely Academy in Budapest, where the syllabus was largely based on Walter Gropius’s Bauhaus school in Germany. After settling in Paris in 1930, Vasarely worked in advertising agencies to support himself as a graphic artist while creating many works including Zebra (1937), which is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op Art. The artist experimented in a style based in Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism during the 1940s, before arriving at his hallmark checkerboard paintings. Op Art went on to have a number of practitioners, including Bridget Riley and Yaacov Agam. The artist died at age 90 on March 15, 1997 in Paris, France. His works are presently held in the collections of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. In 2019, a temporary exhibition of Vasarely's work entitled Le Partage des Formes was displayed in the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

Victor Vasarely
"Kezdi"
sculpture
painted acrylic on wood
1989

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