Victor Vasarely

and the Op Art Movement

 Victor Vasarely Wow! That
Mr. Torres is
a handsome
• Victor Vasarely was a guy.
Hungarian artist who
developed a style of art
known as “Op Art”.
• Op Art is an
abbreviation for Optical
Illusion Art.
• Vasarely worked as a
graphic artist early in
his career.
 Crystals
• These abstract paintings
were inspired by broken
pieces of tile and glass.
• Vasarely was impressed
with how glass when
broken would shatter in
specific and unique
ways.
 Bella Isle
• Vasarely would go to
the beach and looked at
the way the waves
crashing on the shore
would reorganize the
pebbles and shells on
the sand.
 Bella Isle
• This idea of the pebbles
on the beach served as
the basis for these
abstract paintings.
 Zebras
• Vasarely painted few of
these artworks inspired
by the striped animals
but they would serve an
important role in the
way Vasarely would see
things.
 Zebras
• Vasarely discovered
that the zebra stripes
would begin to meld
and create optical
illusions.
 Black and White
• Vasarely began to
explore the idea of
creating optical illusions
in his paintings.
 Black and White
• Still using the black and
whites that he used for
his zebra paintings
these groundbreaking
black and white works
helped Vasarely to
further develop the
idea of abstract
illusions.
 Vasarely’s Alphabet
• Vasarely studied
geometry and looked at
the shapes of the circle,
square, and triangle.
 Vasarely’s Alphabet
• These basic shapes
served as his alphabet,
just like letters when
arranged in different
orders form words,
Vasarely rearranged his
shapes in different
ways to create new
works of art.
 Vegas
• Adding form to the
shapes, patterns,
spectacular colors, and
gradients helped to
create an idea of three-
dimensionality and fully
defined his abstract
optical illusion art
works.
 Gestalt
• These works are some
of Vasarely’s most well-
known paintings and
illustrate his distinctive
style.
 Tribute to the Hexagon
• Vasarely died in Paris,
France in 1997.