Victor Vasarely

Victor Vasarely (French: [viktɔʁ vazaʁəli]; Hungarian: [ˈviktor ˈvɒzɒrɛlːi]; born Vásárhelyi Győző [ˈvaːʃaːrhɛji ˈɟøːzøː]; ( 1906-04-09)9 April 1906 – 15 March 1997( 1997-03-15)), was a Hungarian–French artist, who is widely accepted as a "grandfather" and leader of the short-lived op art movement.

His work entitled Zebra, created in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of op art.

Life and work

Vasarely was born in Pécs and grew up in Pöstyén (now Piešťany, Slovakia) and Budapest, where in 1925 he took up medical studies at Eötvös Loránd University. In 1927, he abandoned medicine to learn traditional academic painting at the private Podolini-Volkmann Academy. In 1928/1929, he enrolled at Sándor Bortnyik's private art school called Műhely (lit. "Workshop", in existence until 1938), then widely recognized as Budapest's centre of Bauhaus studies. Cash-strapped, the műhely could not offer all that the Bauhaus offered. Instead it concentrated on applied graphic art and typographical design.