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Victor Vasarely 1908 born in Pécs (H) 1997 died in Paris Katolar, 1973 Acrylic on canvas 100 x 100 cm (c) VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2006/2007 |
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The seemingly elastic tracery of lines in this painting result in the manifestation of four regularly arranged spherical forms that seem to jump out at the viewer. Victor Vasarely, the most celebrated of the Op Art artists, achieves this effect by a perspectival enlargement of the geometrical microforms in the reticular structure, and by systematically deforming them according to mathematical laws. Using foreshortened lines, obtuse angles or angles verging on the acute, and circular forms transforming progressively into ovals, the artist has shaped the picture space and lent it a pulsating three-dimensional effect. And further possibilities from the world of illusionism are used to the full in order to suggest three-dimensionality in paint: the chromatic interplay of successively shaded reds and blues opens up the virtual space in perfect analogy to the formal structures of the composition.
Taking a basic geometrical vocabulary as his starting point, Victor Vasarely created from the 1950s onward abstract compositions involving a visual sense of depth. At the same time his aesthetics subscribed fully to the tradition of Geometrical Constructive Art, which he enriched by new visual experiences. As one of the first ever artists in this field, he introduced the illusionist depiction of three or more dimensions, as well as the factor of movement, into Abstract Geometrical Painting. The optical illusion and the kinetic aspect of his works are brought about purely by the way they stimulate the retina, which is »set in vibration«, as it were. The outcome is the baffling impression of stereometric bodies that loom from and fall back into the picture surface. |
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