Victor Vasarely was born in Pécs, Hungary, in 1908. After studying medicine for two years, in 1927 he began attending the private art academy Podolni-Volkmann in Budapest. In 1929/1930 he switched to the training workshop in Sándor Borntyik’s atelier, where the teaching was mainly modelled on that of the Bauhaus. In 1930 he then moved to Paris, where he worked as a graphic artist. In 1944 he turned to painting, and in 1947 he began developing his form of geometric abstraction based on mathematical calculation. His first Op Art works, which trick the viewer’s perceptions, were created in 1951. Vasarely was represented in documenta 1 in 1955, as well as at the three following ones in 1959, 1964 and 1968. In 1972 he gave the rhombus-shaped logo of the carmaker Renault a three-dimensional touch, and in the same year he designed the official logo for the Munich Olympics. Vasarely died in 1997 in Annet-sur-Marne, near Paris.
