Vasarely 1964

Victor Vasarely made this print with simple graphic shapes, black ink on an off-white page. I imagine him playing with stencils, cutting out these smooth, curvilinear forms, each one a solid mass, then arranging and rearranging them on the page. I'm thinking about how shapes behave, how they relate to each other, how they might create a figure. I can feel Vasarely sympathizing with his shapes: he wants them to all fit, but of course, they resist, they create a certain tension. I see the push and pull, the desire for balance, the asymmetry, as a language. You know, these forms are almost human, in a weird way, like geometric torsos and limbs. The dialogue between artists continues through time, an ongoing exchange of ideas and experiments. The conversation between Vasarely and those who come after remains open. There’s no limit to the different ways of seeing or reading this image; its ambiguity ensures that new interpretations will always arise.