VASARELY – The Father of Op Art

Almost everyone is familiar with Victor Vasarely’s art. His works, which create optical illusions, live on not only on museum walls: they appear on postcards, design objects, book covers, and can even be found blending into the facades of buildings in numerous cities around the world. 

To mark the 120th anniversary of the world-famous artist's birth, CODE is now bringing his works closer to you in a way you’ve never experienced before. 

This space is not static. It pulses. It undulates. It reacts to you.   

This is precisely the essence of op art, or optical art: it plays with our perception. The paintings seem not to be static surfaces, but living, breathing systems. It is not reality that changes, but the way we perceive it. 

Vasarely’s life story is truly remarkable. Would you have thought that he drew his inspiration from nature—specifically, from the waves of Lake Balaton? He later became a world-renowned artist in Paris, where the convergence of modern art and geometry gave his works a whole new direction.

He did not seek to replicate nature, but rather to explore the systems underlying it: patterns, proportions, rhythm, and repetitions. This is how his iconic works came into being; during their creation— well before the digital age, as precursors to computer graphics— he transformed the rules of geometry into art and optical vibrations with mathematical precision. 

The walls melt away,  

the shapes transform,  

the colors shift,