£688
Contemporary & Post-War Art | 595
Auction: 16 April 2020 at 12:00 BST
Screenprint, mounted on cardboard, unframed
Biography
Victor Vasarely was born in Hungary and although initially he spent two years studying medicine he joined the Podolini-Volkmann Academy in 1927. It was during this period that Vasarely first heard of the German Bauhaus school of crafts and fine art. To that end he enrolled in the Bauhaus Muhely Academy in which the basic concepts of the teaching were that all the arts should achieve a unity of purpose based on the cube, the rectangle and the circle. In 1930 Vasarely moved to Paris where much of his work was for advertising agencies. In 1944 Vasarely had his first important exhibition at the Denise René Gallery and it’s success encouraged Vasarely to devote himself to painting. In the late 40’s Vasarely began to move from paintings that were abstract but evolved from representational images to abstract works that were entirely composed of geometric shapes. During the 50’s and 60’s Vasarely began to develop this approach further and he finally achieved international recognition when he exhibited at MOMA alongside other important artists such as Bridget Riley. Vasarely‘s later work explored every aspect of what was to be known as Op Art including distorting and warping images and creating complex three dimensional structures. He was made an honorary citizen of New York Grand Officier de l’Ordre National du Mérite.