Biography from American Design Ltd.:
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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.
Selected Major Museum Collections
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
New York
Museum of Modern Art
New York
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
Buffalo
Tare Gallery
London
Art Institute of Chicago
Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art
Stedelijk Museum
Amsterdam
Musee d'Art Moderne
Paris
Yale University Art Gallery
New Haven
Museum of Art
Pittsburgh
Detroit Institute of Arts
Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum
Washington, D.C.
Jewish Museum
New York
Museum of Contemporary Art
Montreal
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts
New Orleans Museum of Art
St. Louis City Art Museum
Philadelphia Museum of Art Dordrecht Museum
Holland
Musee Boymans
Rotterdam
Gemente Museum
Le Havre, Holland
Art Gallery
University of Manchester, England
Ulster Museum
Belfast
Musee Royaux des Beaux-Arts
Brussels
Musee de Leverkusen
Germany
Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe
Hamburg
Musee d'Art Moderne
Basel, Switzerland
Museum of Vienna
Museum of Art
Copenhagen
Museum of Art
Skopje, Yugoslavia
Jerusalem Museum
Tel Aviv Art Museum
Museum of Art
Berlin
Calvert Museum
Avignon
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