Imbituba C49 1950

Victor Vasarely made this flatly painted work, with its limited palette of oranges, reds and blacks, searching for the best way to trick your eye. I imagine him moving these shapes around, deciding where they should sit, patiently filling in the outlines. I wonder if he mixed the shades himself? It feels like an experiment in layering, in foregrounding and backgrounding. There’s a geometry that’s not quite right, a kind of wonky, organic set of forms that almost meet, almost align. I can feel the surface here, it’s smooth, a kind of material theatre—and there’s an intentional flatness, which pushes the painting forward, towards me. It makes me think about all the ways a painting can sit: against, or on, or outside the wall. That curve in the lower centre left —it wants to be a horizon line, but it’s not, of course. That was the genius of Vasarely, thinking through how a painting performs, not just hangs. He prompts me to play with shape, colour, and surface, inspiring my own image-making in the studio.