Victor Vasarely

Victor Vasarely – Studies with Sándor Bortnyik; first steps as a commercial artist

Victor Vasarely was born on 9 April 1906 with the name Gyözö Vásárhelyi in the Hungarian episcopal and university town of Pécs. He initially studied medicine in Budapest but having previously taken painting lessons at the privately run Podolini-Volkann Academy, moved prior to graduation to the respected drawing school of Mühely (workshop) which was led by Sándor Bortynik in the Bauhaus tradition. During this time, Vasarely became acquainted with the colour teachings of the German art theorist Josef Albers and familiarised himself with the constructivist work of the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky. In 1930, he emigrated with his wife to Paris where he worked as a graphic designer for the commercial agency Devambez, Draeger und Havas, mainly designing posters. In this position, he had plenty of opportunity to experiment with various graphic styles, and he was especially interested in ways of successfully deceiving the human eye. In 1944, before the end of the Second World War, he had the chance to exhibit his early works in the Parisian Denise René Gallery and the success of this exhibition strengthened his resolve to earn a living as a painter of art.

Art as normative standard and overcoming the existing

While Victor Vasarely had shown figurative representations alongside his characteristic abstract forms at his first exhibition, he devoted himself entirely to geometry in the years that followed. On the occasion of the group exhibition Le Mouvement held in 1950, also at Denise René, he published his art theoretical Manifest Jaune ("Yellow Manifesto"), in which he postulated the work of art as a reproducible and variously applicable prototype. It is not the job of art to imitate nature, but to understand itself as artificial and to create something new itself, thus surpassing nature. Vasarely himself followed his guidelines and created a diverse oeuvre of repeating basic forms and colours which he continually combined anew. By the 1960s, Vasarely had already received prizes and honours for his new way of painting, including the Guggenheim Prize in New York, and was a celebrated participant of documenta in Kassel four times. 

Geometry in nature and the decline of art

An important inspiration for Victor Vasarely was his stay at the Belle Isle beach in Brittany, and he processed his feelings for this strip of land in a whole series of works which he aptly named Belle Isle. In these paintings, Vasarely primarily dedicated himself to the geometry in nature which he wished to make visible to his audience. With its intricate geometric forms, the art of Victor Vasarely is also encountered in the profane in everyday life: the famous diamond logo of the French car manufacturer Renault can be traced back to a design by the Hungarian artist. Towards the end of his career, Vasarely became disillusioned with the development of the art scene that he had helped initiate, and complained that anyone could call themselves an artist and that every spot of paint was transfigured into a great artwork. 

Victor Vasarely died on 15 March 1997 in Paris. His son, Jean-Pierre Vasarely was also a successful painter of OP Art under the artist’s name Yvaral.