Victor Vasarely (Vásárhelyi Győző) (9 April 1906, Pécs - 15 March 1997, Paris) was a French Hungarian-born artist often acclaimed as the father of Op-art. April 9 is the 99th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (100th in leap years). ... 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Pécs   (Latin: Quinque Ecclesiae, Croatian: Pečuh, German: Fünfkirchen, Serbian: Pečuj or Печуј, Slovak: Päťkostolie, Turkish: Peçuy, Italian: Cinquechiese) is the fourth largest city of Hungary, located in the south-west of the country. ... March 15 is the 74th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (75th in Leap years). ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Location Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country France Région ÃŽle-de-France Département Paris (75) Subdivisions 20 arrondissements Mayor Bertrand Delanoë  (PS) (since 2001) City Statistics Land... House I, created by Roy Lichtenstein in 1996, is designed to be an optical illusion. ...

Working as a graphic artist in the 1930s he created what is considered the first Op-art piece — Zebra, consisting of curving black and white stripes, indicating the direction his work would take. Over the next two decades, Vasarely developed his style of geometric abstract art. His work won his international renown and he received several prestigious prizes. He died in Paris in 1997. House I, created by Roy Lichtenstein in 1996, is designed to be an optical illusion. ... Suprematist painting by Kazimir Malevich Geometric abstract art is a form of abstract art based on the use of simple geometric forms placed in nonillusionistic space and combined into nonobjective compositions. ...

Life and work

Born on 9 April 1906 in Pécs, Hungary, he grew up in Piešťany (Hungarian: Pöstyén) and Budapest where in 1925 he took up medical studies at Budapest University. In 1927 he abandoned medicine to learn traditional academic painting at the private Polini-Volkmann academy. In 1928/1929, he enrolled at Sándor Bortnyik's Műhely (lit. "workshop", in existence until 1938), then widely recognized as the center of Bauhaus studies in Budapest. Cash-strapped, the műhely could not offer the whole range of its illustrious Bauhaus model, and concentrated on applied graphic art and typographic design. April 9 is the 99th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (100th in leap years). ... 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Pécs   (Latin: Quinque Ecclesiae, Croatian: Pečuh, German: Fünfkirchen, Serbian: Pečuj or Печуј, Slovak: Päťkostolie, Turkish: Peçuy, Italian: Cinquechiese) is the fourth largest city of Hungary, located in the south-west of the country. ... PieÅ¡Å¥any (German: Pistyan, Hungarian: Pöstyén) is a spa town in western Slovakia located on the Váh river. ... Nickname: Paris of the East, Pearl of the Danubeor Queen of the Danube Location of Budapest in Hungary Country Hungary County Pest Mayor Gábor Demszky (SZDSZ) Area    - City 525,16 km²  - Land n/a km²  - Water n/a km² Population    - City (2006) 1,695,000  - Density 3570/km... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article is about Eötvös Loránd University, which is often referred to as University of Budapest. ... 1927 (MCMXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Reconstructed main building of the Bauhaus Dessau (2003). ...

Vasarely’s excellence in drawing was quickly noticed. In 1929 he painted his Blue Study and Green Study. In 1930 he married his fellow student Claire Spinner (1908-1990). Together they had two sons. In Budapest, he worked for a ball-bearings company in accounting and designing advertising posters. 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link is to a full 1930 calendar). ...

Outdoor Vasarely artwork at the museum in Pécs

Vasarely left Hungary and settled in Paris in 1930 working as a graphic artist and as a creative consultant at the advertising agencies Havas, Draeger and Devambez (1930-1935). His interactions with other artists during this time were limited. He played with the idea of opening up an institution modeled after Sándor Bortnyik Műhely’s and developed some teaching material for it. Having lived mostly in cheap hotels, he settled in 1942/1944 in Saint-Céré in the Lot département. After the Second World War, he opened an atelier in Arcueil, a suburb some 10 kilometers from the center of Paris (in the Val-de-Marne département of the Île-de-France). In 1961 he finally settled in Annet-sur-Marne (in the Seine-et-Marne département). Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 1739 KB) Vasarely szobra a pálosok elÅ‘tt Source: photo taken by myself in 2005; Váradi Zsolt File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Op... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 1739 KB) Vasarely szobra a pálosok elÅ‘tt Source: photo taken by myself in 2005; Váradi Zsolt File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Op... Pécs   (Latin: Quinque Ecclesiae, Croatian: Pečuh, German: Fünfkirchen, Serbian: Pečuj or Печуј, Slovak: Päťkostolie, Turkish: Peçuy, Italian: Cinquechiese) is the fourth largest city of Hungary, located in the south-west of the country. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Location Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country France Région ÃŽle-de-France Département Paris (75) Subdivisions 20 arrondissements Mayor Bertrand Delanoë  (PS) (since 2001) City Statistics Land... 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link is to a full 1930 calendar). ... 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... Lot is a département in the southwest of France named after the Lot River. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Art studio A studio is an artists workroom. ... Arcueil is a commune of the Val-de-Marne département, in France. ... Val-de-Marne is a French département, named after the Marne River, located in the ÃŽle-de-France région. ... The départements (or departments) are administrative units of France and many former French colonies, roughly analogous to English counties. ... Capital Paris Land area¹ 12,011 km² Regional President Jean-Paul Huchon (PS) (since 1998) Population  - Jan. ... Seine-et-Marne is a French département, named after the Seine and the Marne rivers, and located in the ÃŽle-de-France région. ...

Over the next three decades, Vasarely developed his style of geometric abstract art, working in various materials but using a minimal number of forms and colours:

• 1929-1944: Early graphics: Varsarely experimented with textural effects, perspective, shadow and light. His early graphic period results in works such as The Zebras (1938), Chess Board (1935), and Girl-Flower (1934).
• 1944-1947: Les Fausses Routes - On the wrong track: During this period, Vasarely experimented with cubistic, futuristic, expressionistic, symbolistic and surrealistic paintings without developing a unique style. Afterwards, he said he was on the wrong track. He exhibited his works in the gallery of Denise René (1946) and the gallery René Breteau (1947). Writing the introduction to the catalogue, Jacques Prévert placed Vasarely among the surrealists. Prévert creates the term imaginoires (images + noir, black) to describe the paintings. Self Portrait (1941) and The Blind Man (1946) are associated with this period.
• 1947-1951: Developing geometric abstract art: Finally, Vasarely found his own style. The overlapping development are named after their geographical heritage. Denfert refers to the works influenced by the white tiled walls of the Paris Denfert-Rochereau metro station. Ellopsoid pebbles and shells found during a vacation in 1947 at the Breton coast at Belle Île inspired him to the Belles-Isles works. Since 1948, Vasarely usually spent his summer months in Gordes in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. There, the cubic houses led him to the composition of the group of works labelled Gordes/Cristal. He worked on the problem of empty and filled spaces on a flat surface as well as the stereoscopic view.

Tribute to Malevitch (1954), Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas

• 1951-1955: Kinetic images, black-white photographies: From his Gordes works he developed his kinematic images, superimposed plexiglass panes create dynamic, moving impressions depending on the viewpoint. In the black-white period he combined the frames into a single pane by transposing photographies in two colours. Tribute to Malevitch, a ceramic wall picture of 100 m² adorns the University of Caracas, Venezuela which he co-designed in 1954 with the architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva, is a major work of this period. Kinetic art flourished and works by Vasarely, Calder, Duchamp, Man Ray, Soto, Tinguely were exhibited at the Denise René gallery under the title Le Mouvement (the motion). Vasarely published his Yellow Manifest. Building on the research of constructivist and Bauhaus pioneers, he postulated that visual kinetics (plastique cinétique) relied on the perception of the viewer who is considered the sole creator, playing with optical illusions.
• 1955-1965: Folklore planétaire, permutations and serial art: On 2 March 1959, Vasarely patented his method of unités plastiques. Permutations of geometric forms are cut out of a coloured square and rearranged. He worked with a strictly defined palette of colours and forms (three reds, three greens, three blues, two violets, two yellows, black, white, gray; three circles, two squares, two rhomboids, two long rectangles, one triangle, two disected circles, six ellipses) which he later enlarged and numbered. Out of this plastic alphabet, he started serial art, an endless permutation of forms and colours worked out by his assistants. (The creative process is produced by standardized tools and impersonal actors which questions the uniqueness of a work of art.) In 1963, Vasarely presented his palette to the public under the name of Folklore planetaire.
• 1965-: Hommage à l'hexagone, Vega: The Tribute to the hexagon series consists of endless transformations of indentations and relief adding color variations, creating a perpetual mobile of optical illusion. In 1965, during the MOMA exhibition Responsive Eye dedicated to Optical Art, the press hailed Vasarely as the inventor and creator of Op-art. His Vega series plays with spherical swelling grids creating an optical illusion of volume.

On 5 June 1970, Vasarely opened his first dedicated museum with over 500 works in a renaissance palace in Gordes (closed in 1996). A second major undertaking was the Fondation Vasarely in Aix-en-Provence, a museum housed in a distinct structure specially designed by Vasarely. It was inaugurated in 1976 by French president Georges Pompidou. In that year, his large kinematic object Georges Pompidou was installed in the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Vasarely Museum located at his birth place in Pécs, Hungary, was established with a large donation of works by Vasarely. In 1982 154 specially created serigraphs were taken into space by the cosmonaut Jean-Loup Chrétien on board the French-Soviet spacecraft Salyut 7 and later sold for the benefit of UNESCO. In 1987, the second Hungarian Vasarely museum was established in Zichy Palace in Budapest with more than 400 works. Woman with a guitar by Georges Braque, 1913 Cubist house in Prague Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music and literature. ... Futurism may refer to: Future studies, the philosophical or academic study of the medium to long-term future also known as futurology. ... The Scream by Edvard Munch (1893) which inspired 20th century Expressionists Portrait of Eduard Kosmack by Egon Schiele Rehe im Walde by Franz Marc Elbe Bridge I by Rolf Nesch On White II by Wassily Kandinsky, 1923. ... La mort du fossoyeur (The death of the gravedigger) by Carlos Schwabe is a visual compendium of Symbolist motifs. ... Surrealism[1] is a movement stating that the liberation of our mind, and subsequently the liberation of the individual self and society, can be achieved by exercising the imaginative faculties of the unconscious mind to the attainment of a dream-like state different from, or ultimately ‘truer’ than, everyday reality. ... Jacques Prévert was a French poet and screenwriter who was born on February 4, 1900 in Neuilly-sur-Seine and died on April 11, 1977 in Omonville-la-Petite. ... Surrealism[1] is a movement stating that the liberation of our mind, and subsequently the liberation of the individual self and society, can be achieved by exercising the imaginative faculties of the unconscious mind to the attainment of a dream-like state different from, or ultimately ‘truer’ than, everyday reality. ... Taby Ley Rochereau Tabu Ley Rochereau (born 1940 Bandundu, Democratic Republic of the Congo as Pascal Tabu) is bandleader of Orchestre Afrisa International and one of Africas most influential vocalists and prolific songwriters. ... Traditional coat of arms Modern flag (Gwenn-ha-du) Historical province of Brittany région of Bretagne, see Bretagne. ... White dot: Location of Belle ÃŽle in France Red dot: Location of the city Le Palais on Belle ÃŽle Belle ÃŽle or Belle ÃŽle en Mer is a French island off the coast of Brittany in the département of Morbihan. ... Location Administration Capital Marseille Regional President Michel Vauzelle (PS) (since 1998) Départements Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Alpes-Maritimes Bouches-du-Rhône Hautes-Alpes Var Vaucluse Arrondissements 18 Cantons 237 Communes 963 Statistics Land area1 31,400 km² Population (Ranked 3rd)  - January 1, 2005 est. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1340x824, 1072 KB) Victor Vasarely Tribute to Malevitch (1954) located and the Covered Plaza, Central University of Venezuela Photo by Alejandro Bárcenas (2005) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1340x824, 1072 KB) Victor Vasarely Tribute to Malevitch (1954) located and the Covered Plaza, Central University of Venezuela Photo by Alejandro Bárcenas (2005) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to... A view of the main library(center) and works by Alejandro Otero(left) and Mateo Manaure(right) The Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas (University City of Caracas) is the main Campus of the Central University of Venezuela. ... Universidad Central de Venezuela The Central University of Venezuela (or Universidad Central de Venezuela in Spanish) is a premier public university of Venezuela and is located in Caracas. ... Carlos Raúl Villanueva working in the house of the Hacienda Ibarra during the construction of the Ciudad Universitaria of Caracas (1959) Carlos Raúl Villanueva (London May 30, 1900 - Caracas August 16, 1975) was the most prominent Venezuelan architect of the 20th century and one of the great Modernists. ... Alexander Calder Alexander Calder (July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976), also known as Sandy Calder, was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing the mobile. ... Marcel Duchamp. ... Man Ray photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1934 Man Ray (August 27, 1890–November 18, 1976) was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. ... Jesús Rafael Soto (June 5, 1923 in Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela - January 14, 2005 in Paris, France) was a Venezuelan artist. ... Image:Basel. ... Tatlin Tower. ... Reconstructed main building of the Bauhaus Dessau (2003). ... An optical illusion is characterized by visually perceived images that, at least in common sense terms, are deceptive or misleading. ... March 2 is the 61st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (62nd in leap years). ... 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... General Electric GE90-115B fanblade, on display at MOMA. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. ... House I, created by Roy Lichtenstein in 1996, is designed to be an optical illusion. ... House I, created by Roy Lichtenstein in 1996, is designed to be an optical illusion. ... June 5 is the 156th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (157th in leap years), with 209 days remaining. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... Gordes at sunset The castle in Gordes Gordes is a mountain village and commune in the Luberon area in the Vaucluse département in Provence, France. ... Aix (prounounced eks), or, to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, Aix-en-Provence is a city in southern France, some 30 km north of Marseille. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou (July 5, 1911 – April 2, 1974) was President of France from 1969 until his death in 1974. ... The Pompidou Centres famous external skeleton of service pipes. ... Pécs   (Latin: Quinque Ecclesiae, Croatian: Pečuh, German: Fünfkirchen, Serbian: Pečuj or Печуј, Slovak: Päťkostolie, Turkish: Peçuy, Italian: Cinquechiese) is the fourth largest city of Hungary, located in the south-west of the country. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Screen-printing, also known as silkscreening or serigraphy, is a printmaking technique that creates a sharp-edged single-color image using a stencil and a porous fabric. ... Spationaut Jean-Loup Chrétien Jean-Loup J.M. Chrétien, retired Général de Brigade (brigadier general) of the Armée de lAir (French air force), spationaut on several Franco-Soviet space missions, and former NASA mission specialist. ... Salyut 7 was launched on April 19, 1982, the last of the Salyut space station program. ... UNESCO logo UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1945. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

He died in Paris on 15 March 1997. March 15 is the 74th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (75th in Leap years). ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Awards

• 1964: Guggenheim Prize
• 1970: French Chevalier de L'Ordre de la Légion d'honneur
• Art Critics Prize, Brussels
• Gold Medal at the Milan Triennale.

1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... Chiang Kai-sheks Légion dhonneur. ...

The Vasarely Foundation

What has happened to the Vasarely Foundation, a non-profit making institution, acknowledged of public utility in 1971, conceived and financed by Claire and Victor Vasarely ? This institution was doted with inalienable and alienable donations for over more than twenty five years within the framework of the French legislation on foundations, a legislation which is very hard to please and yet so permeable. The Vasarely Foundation was managed from 1981 to 1993 by the Aix-Marseille III University of Law, Economics and Sciences, today the Paul Cézanne University. November 27, 1990, the date of the death of Claire Vasarely, the wife of Victor Vasarely, marks the beginning of long and difficult legal proceedings which ended on May 11, 2005 by the final sentencing of Charles Debbasch, the University’s former Dean and the former president of the institution, before the Court of Appeals of Aix-en-Provence, France. Mrs Michèle Taburno, the founders’ daughter-in-law, who dealt with the interests of the Vasarely heirs (André and Jean-Pierre), and the former president of the Foundation from 1995 to 1997, took possession in 1997, the year of Victor Vasarely’s death, of almost 500 original inalienable works of art from the Gordes didactic Museum (closed since 1996), of 798 inalienable studies on Art and the City from the Aix-en-Provence architectonic Centre and around 18000 alienable multiples. Formerly inalienable works have been expatriated and sold off. The Vasarely estate owes the tax administration several million euros. The Foundation’s Board of Directors refuses to acknowledge the reality of its status. The Vasarely Foundation has been bled and is nothing but an empty shell. Several months from the centenary of Victor Vasarely’s birth and the thirtieth anniversary of the opening of the Aix-en-Provence architectonic Centre (2006), the Association for the Defence and Promotion of Vasarely’s work, presided by Pierre Vasarely, Victor Vasarely’s grand-son and legatee, is struggling to recover the work taken from the Vasarely Foundation.

Museums

• 1970-1996: Vasarely Museum in Gordes Palace, Vaucluse, France (closed)
• 1976: Fondation Vasarely, Aix-en-Provence, France
• 1976: Vasarely Museum, Pécs, Hungary
• 1987: Vasarely Museum, Zichy Palace, Óbuda, Budapest, Hungary

Gordes at sunset The castle in Gordes Gordes is a mountain village and commune in the Luberon area in the Vaucluse département in Provence, France. ... The Vaucluse is a département in the southeast of France. ... Aix (prounounced eks), or, to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, Aix-en-Provence is a city in southern France, some 30 km north of Marseille. ... Pécs   (Latin: Quinque Ecclesiae, Croatian: Pečuh, German: Fünfkirchen, Serbian: Pečuj or Печуј, Slovak: Päťkostolie, Turkish: Peçuy, Italian: Cinquechiese) is the fourth largest city of Hungary, located in the south-west of the country. ... Óbuda (sometimes written in English as Obuda) was a historical city in Hungary. ... Nickname: Paris of the East, Pearl of the Danubeor Queen of the Danube Location of Budapest in Hungary Country Hungary County Pest Mayor Gábor Demszky (SZDSZ) Area    - City 525,16 km²  - Land n/a km²  - Water n/a km² Population    - City (2006) 1,695,000  - Density 3570/km...

External links

• Association Vasarely
• Fondation Vasarely
• Vasarely Museum, Zichy Palace, Budapest