VICTOR VASARELY - A MARRIAGE OF SCIENCE AND ART

Words by Melissa James

“Art must become generous and totally diffusible…art must be truly contemporary and not posthumous. From now on, the new technologies are here to diffuse art instantaneously to the masses.”

- Victor Vasarely, 1953

Victor Vasarely © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS ), New York / ADAGP , Paris

Deserting his medical studies for art academies, Victor Vasarely, was a Hungarian-French artist who is titled as the grandfather of the Op Art movement. His scientific schooling endowed him with an uncommon artistic stance. Trained in methodology and objectivity, such styles seeped into his artwork. 

Whilst studying at The Podolini-Volkmann Academy, Vasarely returned to old habits and began reading scientific literature. This triggered a conundrum. He felt as science progressed, new concepts were becoming too difficult for most to understand. But he believed that he had a solution, he thought that through his art he could make complex scientific models visually intelligible to the masses. 

Programmations. (c1978)

Another heavy influence on his mode were the Bohemian coffee houses that lined the Danube river; it was here that Vasarely met with the intellectuals of the city, discussing culture and politics. His environment steered him to explore a number of visual forms, including his first taste of abstraction. Time at The Bauhaus Muhely Academy introduced him to  a new idea - all artistic models should attain a harmonious relationship between the cube, the rectangle and the circle. This was the beginning of his greatness.

In 1930, Vasarely moved to Paris, which at the time was the beating heat of the art world. His work became increasingly figurative and graphic. Notable pieces he produced at this time include L’Echiquier (1935). Colloquially named, ‘The Chess Board’, it was completely 2D, but through use of shape and monochromatic colour it resulted in the mind-altering impression of movement.  

L’Echiquier. (1935)

By the mid 40’s, after his first exhibition at the Denise Rene Gallery, he was fully committed to abstract painting. However, he did not believe he had yet found his own unique style, so he distanced himself from trying to grasp representational imagery and devoted himself to paintings contrived solely of geometric shapes. 

His more colourful work was guided by the ‘Alphabet Plastique’, a grid based structure that denotes a modular relationship between forms and colours. The concept is seen in a lot of his work, such as, Alphabet VB (1960) and Vonal-Stri (1975). To produce his hallucinatory paintings successfully Vasarely also used preliminary scale drawings which he called programmations. Through his in depth explorations, he fathered a colour system and a comprehensive understanding of how linear forms and shapes would impact his work - a kind of ‘artistic alphabet’. 

Alphabet VB. (1960)

Whilst remaining transfixed by geometric shapes, Vasarely began moving to favour the simple colour combination of black and white. This era of his work marked the foundations of what is now labelled as the Op Art movement. A notable exploratory piece was Vega (1957). The routineness of its pattern is disturbed by misshapen squares which promote a ‘trippy’ effect. It follows the now distinctive criteria of optical art. The perceptual experience encourages viewer engagement. Its dynamic appearance compels us to move around and angle our heads to try and understand its power. Incredibly impactful, it is relatively easy to replicate in simple forms. Perhaps a lockdown craft...