Supernovae 1961

Victor Vasarely made "Supernovae" using primarily black and white elements to create a shifting grid. I like to imagine Vasarely building this up cell by cell, each decision rippling through the whole structure. It's kind of wild, right? I feel a deep sympathy for an artist taking on something this regimented, this full of implied rules. What was he thinking as he laid down each mark? How did the experience of making shift his idea of what the finished work could be? The way that the forms transform from squares into circles suggests a dynamic system in play. It also reminds me a bit of the pointillist paintings of Seurat. Painters are always in conversation with one another, across time and space, riffing on ideas, and pushing things further. We bring our own ways of seeing the world, and so build something new.