Victor Vasarely - Fondation Vasarely

square. This is an early example of Kinetic art. Something
that gives sight to mobile energy. A similar artistic wish is
manifested in Zebras where the dynamism is linked with
the figure. In the previous example the dynamism was the
abstract form itself.
Vasarely’s art reached its peak after 1954. A milestone of
this was the Movement (le Mouvement) shared exhibition
in 1955 April, in Galérie Denise René where to the two
pioneers of the idea, Marcel Duchamp and Alexander
Calder; Vasarely, Jesus Rafael Sotó, Nicholas Schöffer
and Jan Tinguely also joined. Vasarely here declared
his Yellow Manifesto. In it he set out his ideas regarding
Kinetism and plastic wholeness, the language of the painting
where geometric elements are set in a serial order. He
confessed his faith, in the first time, in the serialisation and
popularisation of artistic works.
The Kinetic movement’s special item is the Taymir II (1956,
p43) which is the outstanding painting of the Noir et Blanc
series. It is a synthetic piece, a landmark. It contains in
its structure the character of earlier works, the vibration
parallels where one can spot the next step towards the
abstracts of the Naissance series, namely the inner
dynamism of Zilah 1. Yet a new element is the structure of
planes on one another (Aquia 1-2, 1955, p39-40) which break
up and form small units of the picture’s surface. Within the
composition the squares standing on their corners and the
triangles are in an uncertain relations to one another, and
in relation to the regular parallel of the lines. Because of
this the spectator is put under an optical force which stops
the “peaceful” gazing. The sight forcefully changes from
one shape to the next, earlier discovered element, while the
percipient changing the planes projections discovers new
links.
Sonora-Do (1973, p64) is a late, mature creation of the
painter. This is a clear representative presentation of the
order called “plastic writing”. It is a clear and simplified
composition which shows nothing else but a squares mutual
effect with the circle in it. He abandons a thousand years
of object mystification and presents a cool, depersonalised
scientific thesis. His words: "The unity of plasticity which I
created has two values: a blue square organically contains
a smaller red square. The technique of research is based
on the order of fifteen background shapes. These are paper
clips cut mechanically, twenty vivid colours and the shades
of other colours: red, blue, green, mauve, yellow, grey,
whose tone arches from the lightest (no. 1) to the darkest
(no. 15). These paper cuts can be moved easily achieving
permutations. The result is 15 background formation
combined with 90 tones, within the units, and the same
number between them which means a practically infinite
combinative possibilities. Thereby they can be programmed
and lead into the world of art kibernetics".
The black-white, positive-negative solutions of Op-art (in
honour of Malevich) was supplanted by coloured structures
from 1960. The geometric elements of the permutational
lines were extended and the permutational possibilities have
increased. The order established and applied by Vasarely
became the creative basis of a new school, a new movement.
One of the main aims of the period of vibrant kinetic
composition was the optical suggestion of creating four
dimensions by involving movement and time. Another
important part in Vasarely’s creations is space. He
endeavoured to suggest two or more possibilities of meaning
regarding the mass of the geometric main body. In order
to achieve success he exploited the possibilities shapes and
colours offered. He applied the contrasting special effects
of cold-warm colours and shapes. (Chey-Pyr 1970-71,
p63). He exploited the potentialities of the classical line
perspectives, of the axonometric projections (Tridium-O,
1968, p56) or those of the Kepler cube (Meh-III-A, 1967, p53).
The larger projects magnified the effects of perspective
magnifications causing false sensory perception.
An example of this that the square transforms into multiple
rhomboids as the meeting lines suggest depth and the lines
of circles suggest an arched surface, as they turn into oval
formations. Many examples show these solutions in the
Pécs collection. The painting entitled Yapoura-2 (1951-56,
p29) has circle elements starting out of the centre in four
directions, then they get gradually smaller, suggesting the
illusion of leaning into a flat plane. The painting entitled
67