VASARELY HAT-V
Victor VASARELY
"HAT-V" 1971 Oil on panel 33x33 cm Signed lower left "Vasarely"
About the artist
Victor Vasarely began studying medicine, which he stopped after two years. He then became interested in the Bauhaus and studied at Sándor Bortnyik's Műhely (en) in Budapest from 1929 to 1930. In 1930, he moved to Arcueil with his wife Claire (Klára) Spinner (1908–1990), first temporarily in the Plas workshop, then at 1 avenue Jeanne-d'Arc. He began there as a graphic artist in advertising agencies such as Havas, Draeger, Devambez. It was there that he performed his first major work, Zebra (1939) considered today as the first work in the op art genre. In 1934, their son Jean-Pierre was born (died in 2002) who would become a plastic artist under the name of Yvaral and work with his father. In 1948, the couple fell in love with Gordes (Vaucluse) where a Vasarely museum was opened in 1970, supported by the Foundation created by Vasarely and his wife in 1971, and closed in 1996 in the face of management difficulties. Over the next two decades Vasarely developed his own model of geometric abstract art, working in a variety of materials, but employing a minimal number of shapes and colors. Christ and Saint Peter are among the artist's rare religious works. Property of the city of Charenton-le-Pont, they were exhibited until December 2018 in the crypt of the cathedral of Évry. Vasarely also designed the twenty-five stained-glass windows for the Saint-François d'Assise church in Port-Grimaud in the Var. He also works for many companies and in 1972 metamorphosed with his son the Renault logo. In 1972, he also designed the facade of the RTL studios at 22, rue Bayard in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, clad in metal strips. This work, listed as a Historic Monument, was dismantled when the radio moved on October 23, 2017. RTL Group donated it to the Vasarely Foundation, based in Aix-en-Provence. In the 1970s, he created the facade of the Claude Nicolas Ledoux college in Dole and then became a leading artist from the 1960s to 1970s. Https://www.fondationvasarely.org