Aix en Provence, a place I’ve driven past many times, yet have never
visited. For as long as I can remember, a huge V would tell us ‘you’re nearly
there, Fréjus isn’t far… holidays!’ The V is still there on the side of the
motorway, though maybe a little worse for wear.
I
always knew that it was Vasarely, despite not knowing who this person was and
what he did. Well, this summer, I found the answer to my questions.
Victor
Vasarely, 1906-1997, Hungarian, was a visual artist who worked with plastic and
made a name for himself in the world of contemporary art by creating optical
art.
He began as a graphical artist for
advertising companies and in particular drew advertisements for medical
products.
After this, he developed his own geometric abstract art model. He wanted
to create an “architectonic centre” to give life to his idea of integrating art
into the city. He wanted to “fight the disturbances and forge a happy and
polychromatic city”.
In his art, he
uses simple shaped: squares, circles, hexagons, cubes
and all the
colours in between.
He liked
representing undulations and linear deformations.
In his “Las Vegas” phase, he took inspiration from planets and constellations.
He places his
designs on tapestries from Aubusson, the Manufacture de la Savonnerie, or the Manufacture
des Gobelins.
“The geometric
shapes deform and balloon under the pulses of the cosmos”
The artist uses
the scientific properties of light and colours to give the impression of a 3rd
dimension.
The lighter colours
give the impression of coming out whereas the darker ones seem to be receding.
11/07/2012 Fondation vasarely - Aix en Provence
No comments:
Post a Comment