Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian-born French Op Art painter. He was best known as the "grandfather" of the Op Art movement of the 1960s. Vasarely was born in 1908 in Pecs, Hungary. He initially studied medicine, but soon abandoned the field to take up painting at the Podolini-Volkmann Academy.
Vasarely experimented with a number of different styles before finding his groove in Op Art. After moving to Paris in 1930, Vasarely became a successful graphic designer, systematically exploring the optical and emotional scope of different graphic techniques. This led to his discovery, in 1947, that geometric forms could evoke a sensory perception conveying new ideas of space, matter and energy. He developed his own geometric form of abstraction, which he varied to create different optical patterns with a kinetic effect. The artist made grids in which he arranged geometric forms and bright colors in such a way that the eye perceives a fluctuating movement. This was a major contribution to the development of Op Art.
He exhibited works regularly at the Documenta in Kassel between 1955 and 1968. His brilliant works went mainstream in the forms of posters and fabrics. Vasarely later built his own museum in France, which however closed in 1996, but there are several other museums in France and Hungary named after the artist.