Few weeks ago I visited Emma, Espoo Museum of Modern Art. There is a nice little exhibition of Victor Vasarely (1906-1997) going on. Vasarely is the guy who was a pioneer of optical art. His artwork has influenced strongly to fashion of 60’s.
Even in today we can see some echoes of that period. Valentino FF 2014 is a lovely sample of this. The fantastic patterns really get noticed.
If you are heading to Emma and Vasarely as well, I recommend to look at the documentary films also. That certainly gives some more value to the exhibition experience.
At some point Vasarely was very systematic while planning his artwork. He had some 15 different shapes, with which he was able to create endlessly number of new artworks. He made the models in small scale at his desk and the assistants painted the final huge paintings. Vasarely had the design roots in Bauhaus. So the mass production was a natural choice to him. He pointed the idea that art belongs to people.
It was funny how the surroundings of city of Helsinki started look like pure Vasarely after the experience. The big office buildings with glass walls with thousand little square windows reflecting the light are so Vasarely.
Vasarely actually dreamed of cities that would have been covered with his artwork. Large scale. One huge house wall, one huge circle in the center. Next huge wall, next huge circle. And the same course like the whole city. Not a bad dreamer, I think.
The official artist website of Victor Vasarely you can find here:
http://www.vasarely.com
