Relief Metal 1960

Victor Vasarely made this screenprint called Relief Metal sometime in the last century. I’m thinking about him making it, lining up shapes, maybe with tape, thinking about positive and negative space as interchangeable. I imagine he’s thinking about machinery, maybe how parts fit together, mass production, or maybe he’s even thinking about games, like Go or dominoes. The black and white makes me think of film noir, but the shapes are also somehow friendly. I can almost feel the squeegee moving across the screen, pushing the ink through the stencil to create these hard-edged forms. The top part feels lighter, almost floating, while the bottom is heavier, more grounded. The nine circles with indents feel like they could move or spin; they almost create an optical illusion. This piece is a bit like the art of Bridget Riley or Josef Albers, where simple shapes and colors create dynamic visual experiences, and I just love that.