Victor Vasarely, a pioneer of Op Art, viewed his art less as an aesthetic experiment and more as a universal language intended to democratize art. His art challenges human perception through visual illusions and distortions, thereby setting the space around it in motion. Through the deliberate use of geometric forms and vibrant color contrasts, he manipulates our visual perception, suggesting movement within a static surface, and stimulates the eye until both body and mind are engaged.

The Hungarian artist was born Gyözö Vásárhelyi in Pécs on April 9, 1906. In 1927, he began his training at a private drawing school in Budapest before transfering to the “Mühely” (Eng. “Workshop”) school, where the Bauhaus philosophy was the primary focus of instruction. After moving to Paris in 1930, he worked successfully as a commercial artist, systematically exploring the visual and emotional potential of various graphic techniques. In 1947, he came across the idea that diverse sensory sensations can be evoked even in two-dimensional space. These sensations convey new ideas about space, matter, and energy. He developed a unique form of geometric abstraction, whose variations led to optical patterns with kinetic effects and ultimately made a significant contribution to the emergence of Op Art.

Around the same time that he published his “Manifest Jaune” in 1955—in which Vasarely outlined his approach to Kinetic Art—he began a series of works in black and white known as the “Période Noir-Blanc.” Our work "Korna” can also be assigned to this group. In 1972, the present work was completed based on a concept from 1952-1960, which is typical of the artist’s creative process. The immensely energetic, detailed fragmentation of geometric forms and the radical reduction to black-and-white contrasts mark a new phase in Victor Vasarely’s visionary oeuvre. In large format and with an unerring sense for striking effects, he stages here a true performance of geometry and a captivating optical illusion.

However, this presentation of his kinetic art is not aimed solely at visual perception. On an intellectual level, Vasarely's “Noir-Blanc” works also evoke specific responses deeply rooted in human cultural knowledge and consequently anchored in the viewer's subconsciousness: I concluded, philosophically speaking, that the white and black symbols—like the familiar antinomies of the past—“day and night,” “angel and devil,” “good and evil”—are in reality complementary quantities, a fruitful androgyny. To unite yes and no into one is to complete knowledge truly. What prospects... Black and white, yes and no.” (quoted from the exhibition catalog Vasarely. Inventor of Op Art, Ludwigshafen am Rhein 1997, p. 119) [AR]