Orion Noir Negative 1970

Victor Vasarely made this, 'Orion Noir Negative', with paint and mathematical precision. Look at the sheer commitment to the grid, those evenly spaced shapes, the colour combos! I can only imagine him in the studio—perhaps frustrated that his hand was not as perfect as a machine, or maybe that was the point. Think about how he made a whole world with just circles and squares. He plays with colour, shifting from warm to cool, inviting us to lose ourselves in a world of pattern. Vasarely makes me think about his artistic ancestors. All those pointillists, seurat, for instance, who believed that small strokes could add up to something bigger. It’s like one artist talking to another across time, each leaving their mark.