Gironde 1977

With unwavering focus, Victor Vasarely painstakingly laid down the neat horizontal bands of color in this piece, Gironde. Looking at this kind of hard-edged painting, I think of Agnes Martin, another painter with incredible focus, but here there's none of that lovely, wavering line that makes her grids so human. Vasarely's working towards a geometric ideal, building form out of color as if he's writing code. He creates something between an arrow and a cone, using these gradients of blue and green. Each precisely placed band contributes to the optical effect. Did he maybe think he could somehow reach a universal language or optical truth? Was painting the best way to get there? These artists, like Josef Albers, who were exploring color theory, expanded painting beyond self-expression and into a kind of science. It seems the conversation between painters is always expanding what a painting can be!