3
Portfolios%3D%221805%22%20and%20Sort_Artist%3D%22Vasarely,%20Victor%22
Print
Ondhu
Victor Vasarely, 1906 or 1908 - 1997
Vasarely, Victor
France
1906 or 1908 - 1997
Male
25 x 19 1/2 in. (63.5 x 49.5 cm)
.
.
.
sheet
sheet
.
.
.
plate
plate
Printer's ink
Printer's ink
0
0
Print
lower right, below imagelower left, below image
1996.62
item
Memorial Art Gallery
5/12/2001
96.62SL1
slide
full
2 x 2
00/00/00
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Graphics/blank.gif
negative
2 x 3
00/00/00
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Graphics/blank.gif
glossy
8 x 10
00/00/00
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Graphics/blank.gif
96.62DI1
digital image
00/00/00
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/96.62_A1.jpg
Print
Untitled
Victor Vasarely, 1906 or 1908 - 1997
Vasarely, Victor
France
1906 or 1908 - 1997
Male
28 x 23 5/8 in. (71.1 x 60 cm)
.
.
.
sheet
Printer's ink
Printer's ink
ca. 1970
1965
1975
1900-2000
Print
Victor Vasarely was an innovator of Op Art, a movement in the 1960s characterized by engaging the viewer’s perception through the use of illusions. In this print, the artist combines geometric forms in a wide range of saturated colors to create a spatially ambiguous image. For example, look closely at the magenta square with the vermillion diamond in the center. Is this square the front face of a cube that projects towards you? Or the back face of an empty open cube?
Space in an image is determined by how you read forms in relation to one another, and follows from a series of cues. You might find yourself being able to see both possibilities in this print because the artist has combined contrasting spatial cues. Because bright tones tend to project forward, you might read the magenta-square as the front face of a cube. However, if you look at the two blue squares in the lower-left, the green sides to the magenta-faced cube appear to be the side and top of two different blue-faced cubes. Now the magenta square is the back face of an empty open cube.
Continue looking across the surface of this image. Do the spatial relations between elements change depending on your focus?
[Label copy from Seeing in Color and Black and White, 2018]
1987.66
item
Memorial Art Gallery
5/12/2001
87.66
slide
2 x 2
00/00/00
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Graphics/blank.gif
glossy
8x10
00/00/00
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Graphics/blank.gif
negative
4x5
00/00/00
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Graphics/blank.gif
87.66DI1
digital image
1/18/2002
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/87.66_A1.jpg
87.66DI#2
digital image
8/2/2018
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/87.66_A2.jpg
Print
Untitled - Blue Repeat Patterns on a Green Square
Victor Vasarely, 1906 or 1908 - 1997
Vasarely, Victor
France
1906 or 1908 - 1997
Male
26 3/8 x 26 1/4 in. (67 x 66.7 cm)
.
.
.
vertical
image
.
.
.
sheet
Printer's ink
Printer's ink
0
0
Print
Shape, color, and pattern all play a role in perceiving spatial depth in a two-dimensional image. When you look at this print by Victor Vasarely, do you see a layer of smaller green circles over a layer of larger blue circles, and on top of a green background? Or a blue gear-like shape on a green background with a semicircular border?
If you see the former, you are inferring that there is a separate layer of green circles even though they are not clearly distinguished from the same green background. Why might you do this? The human visual system tends to prefer simple shapes over complex ones and regular patterns over irregularities, sometimes interpreting these preferences when evidence for them is inconclusive. In this case, your visual system completes the pattern set up by the smaller green circles that appear to sit on top of the larger blue circles. Your brain fills in the picture, creating a pattern where one might exist.
[Label copy from Seeing in Color and Black and White, 2018]
lower right, below imagelower left, below image
1968.65
item
Memorial Art Gallery
5/12/2001
68.65DI1
digital image
00/00/00
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/Inventory pictures/68.65_I1.JPG
68.65DI#2
digital image
3/8/2018
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/68.65_A1.jpg