Caopeo 1964

Victor Vasarely made this large square canvas of black and white shapes, called Caopeo. I can imagine him mapping out each circle and square, probably with tape, and then filling in the black and white, section by section. It's so controlled. But where does control end and visual sensation begin? Does it create a sensation of depth through the illusion of movement? The shapes look like they're rotating, right? Some feel like full moons, others like eclipses. He must have been thinking about machines and the way technology was shaping our world, a world that was becoming more and more about geometry and less about nature. Like Josef Albers, another geometric painter, Vasarely explores how we see. And that’s what painters do, right? They show you how to see the world, and then the world shows them right back.