Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

Born in Pécs, Hungary, Vasarely studied under Laszlo Moholy-Nagy at the Mühely Academy, which was known as the “Budapest Bauhaus.“ There, he was introduced to the austerely geometric paintings produced by artists affiliated with Russian Constructivism and the Bauhaus School in Germany. In 1930 he moved to Paris, where he began working in a geometric abstract mode. Fascinated by the idea of movement—both actual and illusory—Vasarely began kinetic sculptures, paintings, and prints that came to exemplify the style known as Op Art. In the 1960s, he produced a series of wood reliefs, including HF–3. These works explore the relationship between two- and three-dimensionality through geometric form.