Description
Victor Vasarely - Oltar Zoelo, multi-wave cube
Silkscreen, acrylic glass, 1970s
Edition 24/200, signed and numbered
Dimensions 4" x 4" x 4"
Excellent condition.
Executed in three dimensions, “Oltar Zoelo” multi-wave cube can be treated as an embodiment of all Victor Vasarely’s ideas juxtaposed to each other. A perfect cube, it is made of completely transparent acrylic glass, adorned with recognizable optical art design on each of its six sides. Every design is enhanced by one color, while the basic optical illusion of emerging ball remains the same, despite differing details. However, when seen from any of the sides, this multi-dimensional piece demonstrates its true complexity, in which colors and illusions merge, creating a seemingly endless universe of geometry within one small cube. It’s as if his famous piece “Vega Nor” from 1969 is deconstructed and each of its constituents now occupies one side of the cube, creating the effect of the masterpiece even more puzzling. A quintessence of the artist’s work is captured within this piece, as it captures our attention to this day, sometimes for hours. An original 1970s cube belongs to an edition of 200, numbered 24 in the array, signed and numbered by the artist. It is a rare sculptural piece invented by the Op Art master, and a desired collectible.
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The piece comes in professional, safe packaging. Certificate of Authenticity included.
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Born on April 9, 1906, in Pecs, Hungary, artist Victor Vasarely initially studied medicine but soon abandoned the field to take up painting at the Podolini-Volkmann Academy in Budapest. There, he studied with Sandor Bortniky, through which Vasarely learned about the functional artistic style taught to students at the Bauhaus art school in Germany. It was one of a variety of styles that would influence Vasarely before he became the patriarch of Op Art, an abstract form of art featuring geometric patterns, bright colors and spatial trickery.
An Emerging Talent Still an emerging artist in 1930, Vasarely traveled to Paris to study optics and color, earning a living in graphic design. In addition to the artists of the Bauhaus, Vasarely admired early Abstract Expressionism. In Paris, he found a patron, Denise Rene, who helped him open up an art gallery in 1945. He exhibited his works of graphic design and painting at the gallery. Vasarely unstintingly joined together his influences—the Bauhaus style and Abstract Expressionism—to reach new levels of geometric precision and foster the Op Art movement in the 1960s. His brilliant works went mainstream in the forms of posters and fabrics.
The ArtRepublic website describes Op Art as Vasarely’s “own geometric form of abstraction, which he varied to create different optical patterns with a kinetic effect. The artist makes a grid in which he arranges geometric forms in brilliant colors in such a way that the eye perceives a fluctuating movement.”
The Function of Art In Vasarely’s obituary, the New York Times reported that Vasarely viewed his work as the link between the Bauhaus and a form of modern design that would spare the public “visual pollution.”
The Times noted, “He thought that art would have to combine with architecture to survive, and in later years made many studies and proposals for urban design. He also devised a computer program for the designing of his art -- as well as a do-it-yourself kit for making Op Art paintings -- and left much of the actual fabrication of his work to assistants.”
According to the paper, Vasarely said, ''It is the original idea that is unique, not the object itself.''