Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely (Hungarian: Vásárhelyi Győző; born April 9, 1906 in Pecs, † 15 March 1997 in Paris) was a French painter and graphic artist of Hungarian origin. He is one of the founders of the artistic direction of Op Art.
Life
Victor Vasarely studied in Budapest at the Podolini - Volkmann Academy. Later he attended the Sándor Bortnyik performed in the tradition of the Bauhaus school Mühely for graphics. In 1930 he moved to Paris, where he worked as a commercial artist 1930-1940 and mainly designed posters. He developed this interest in augentäuschenden trompe l'oeil, graphic patterns and illusions of space.
From 1944 he devoted himself exclusively to painting. In this year he exhibited for the first time at the Galerie Denise René in Paris. Here he showed, in addition checkerboard patterns and conflicting patterns and figural motifs. In 1947, Vasarely decided to focus on constructive geometric, abstract motifs.
In the 1950s he developed his program of kinetic art. In his Yellow Manifest (Manifesto Jaune ) to the group exhibition Le Mouvement at Denise René ( 1955), he called the work of art as a prototype - with the characteristics of repeatability as serial Vervielfältigbarkeit and beyond art -reaching applicability of its forms. He fulfilled these requirements: his own paintings and sculptures are now characterized by the aggressive interaction of standardized basic shapes and colors, which are put together in different ways to patterns.
Victor Vasarely won in 1965 and 1967, numerous international art awards over the years. He took part in documenta 1 (1955), Documenta II ( 1959), Documenta III (1964) and also the documenta 4 in Kassel in 1972. In 1972 he developed a new diamond logo in the style of Op Art for the automotive company Renault.
In 1970 he founded the museum with his own work on the Château de Gordes ( closed in 1996 ) and 1976, the Foundation Vasarely in Aix -en- Provence, also 1976 opening of the Vasarely Museum in Pecs, Hungary, in the artist's birthplace. 1987 Opening of the Vasarely Museum in Zichy, Budapest, Hungary Castle. Since 1961 he lived in Annet- sur- Marne.
His son, Jean Pierre (1934-2002) was known under the name Yvaral as an artist.
Works
His first great work Zebra is now regarded as the first work of Vasarely Op Art and as a co-founder of this direction. The vocabulary of his artistic career includes square, diamond, triangle, circle and bar shape. He used consistently kinetic effects and optical phenomena. His work is characterized by different periods that were sometimes a parallel or overlapping.
Well-known works are mainly for the following periods:
- Period Noir Blanc (1955-1963), in which he plays with the contrast of white and black
- Hommage à l' hexagons (1964-1972), in which it is not physically possible perspectives can arise with chiaroscuro effects.
- Universal structures - Vega ( from 1969), in which he so deformed a regular grid that it leaves the two-dimensional space visually.
- Works (selection): 1957: Markeb - Neg
- 1968: Vega 200
- 1969: PAUK -SP
- 1969/1970: Pal - 5, 200 x 200 cm
- 1970: Vaar
- 1978: Gestalt RUGO
As a commercial artist he designed in 1972, inter alia, the signet for Renault, which is still used by the company.
Quotes
"Art is artificial and not natural: creation does not imitate nature, but their equal and even surpass means an invention whose among all survivors only man is capable of. "
In later years he criticized the developments within the abstract art with the well-known words:
" Art has become a no man's land. Anyone can nominate to become an artist or even a genius. Each patch of color, each and every Kritz scratch can be explained on behalf of the Holy subjectivism of art. "
Museums
A Vasarely Museum located at his birth city of Pécs in Hungary. Vasarely's works are exhibited in a museum in Budapest Óbuda district. In the Fondation Vasarely in Aix -en- Provence 46 monumental works as well as some plant studies are exposed to the formation.