Victor Vasarely's innovations in color and optical illusion have had a profound influence on contemporary art. He is in the vanguard of contemporary artists who seek new ways to bring beauty and reality closer together, and his goal is to create art that becomes an integral part of everyday life and the environment.
The artist was born in Pecs, Hungary, in 1908. After receiving his baccalaureate degree in medicine, he began studying art at the Podolini-Volkmann Academy in Budapest. In 1929, he transferred to the Muhely Academy, also known as the Budapest Bauhaus. There he became familiar with contemporary research in color and optics by Johannes Itten, Josef Albers and the Constructivists Malevich and Kandinsky.
After his first one-man show in Budapest in 1930, Vasarely moved to Paris, the art center of the world. He established a successful business as a graphic draftsman, developing his fine art in the evenings after work.
In 1943, Vasarely began to work extensively in oils, creating both abstract and figurative canvases. His first Paris exhibition occurred the following year at Galerie Denise René, which he helped to found. Vasarely became the leader of the avant-garde group of important artists affiliated with the gallery.
During the 1950s, Vasarely wrote a series of manifestos on the use of optical phenomena for artistic purposes. These were a significant influence on younger artists. According to Vasarely, "In the last analysis, the picture-object in pure composition appears to me as the last link in the family 'paintings,' still possessing by its shining beauty, an end in itself. But it is already more than a painting. The forms and colors which compose it are still situated, on the plane, but the plastic event which they trigger fuses in front of and in the plane. It is thereby an end, but also a beginning, a kind of launching pad for future achievements."
In 1955, Galerie Denise René hosted a major group exhibition in connection with Vasarely's painting experiments with movement. This was the first important exhibition of kinetic art; in addition to art by Vasarely, it included works by Yaacov Agam, Pol Bury, Soto and Jean Tinguely, among others. Most Americans were first introduced to Vasarely by the groundbreaking exhibition, "The Responsive Eye," at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1965. The show confirmed Vasarely's international reputation as the father of Op art.
The artist has madenumerous monumental sculptures and murals, including works for the Students' Residential Center of Caracas; Faculté des Sciences, Marseille-Saint-Jerome; University of Bonn; Padagogische Hochschule, Essen; University of the Ruhr, Bochum; Maine-Montparnasse Station, Paris; Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Montpellier; and Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
Vasarely has received numerous important awards and honors, including the Guggenheim Prize, New York; Painting Prize, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; Grand Prize, Eighth Biennial of Art, Sao Paulo; Medal of Honor, Aix-en-Provence; Gold Medal, Milan Triennial; Foreign Ministers' Prize, Tokyo Biennale; and Certificate of Distinction and Presidential Citation, New York University. In 1970, Vasarely was named a Knight of the Legion of Honor in France. He has received an honorary Ph.D. from Cleveland State University and is an honorary professor at the School of Applied Arts, Budapest, as well as an honorary citizen of New Orleans and Villeparisis, France.
Among the many major books which have been written on Vasarely are Vasarely, A Survey of His Work by Jean Clay, Victor Vasarely by Abraham Moles, Vasarely by Gaston Diehi, Vasarely et le Cinetisme by Michael Ragon, Vasarely I-IV by Victor Vasarely and Vasarely by Werner Spies.
The artist's works are included in almost every museum in the world which has a collection of contemporary art. Major museums in Gordes and in Aix-en-Provence, France; in Pecs, Hungary; and a wing of the Zichy Palace, Hungary are devoted exclusively to the art of Vasarely.
In 1989, Victor Vasarely visited the United States for the first time in many years to participate in the gala openings of two major Vasarely retrospective exhibitions at Circle Gallery-Soho, New York and Circle Gallery, Chicago.
Guggenheim Prize, New York, New York
Painting Prize, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Grand Prize, Eighth Biennial of Art, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Medal of Honor, Aix-en-Provence, France
Gold medal, Milan Triennial, Italy
Foreign Minister's Prize, Tokyo Biennale, Japan
Certificate of Distinction and Presidential Citation, New York University, New York
Knight, Legion d'Honneur
Galerie Denise René, Paris, France, 1944
Galerie Denise René, Paris, France, 1955
The Responsive Eye, Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, 1965
Vasarely Retrospective, Circle Gallery-Soho, New York, 1989
Vasarely Retrospective, Circle Gallery, Chicago, 1989
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Tare Gallery, London, England
Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, California
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Musee d'Art Moderne, Paris, France
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan
Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.
Jewish Museum, New York, New York
Museum of Contemporary Art, Montreal, Canada
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Texas
New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana
St. Louis City Art Museum, Missouri
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
Dordrecht Museum, Holland
Musee Boymans, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Gemente Museum, Le Havre, Holland
Art Gallery, University of Manchester, England
Ulster Museum, Belfast, Ireland
Musee Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium
Musee de Leverkusen, Germany
Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany
Musee d'Art Moderne, Basel, Switzerland
Museum of Vienna, Austria
Museum of Art, Copenhagen, Denmark
Museum of Art, Skopje, Yugoslavia
Jerusalem Museum, Israel
Tel Aviv Art Museum, Israel
Museum of Art, Berlin, Germany
Calvert Museum, Avignon, France
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Evenings & Weekends
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