Exhibition of Vasarely-inspired Artworks Opens in Pécs

An exhibition of photographs, video animations and space installations inspired by the Hungarian painter and sculptor Victor Vasarely open in Pécs, S Hungary on Wednesday. The works were created in the framework of a course organized by the Photography Department of the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME) in collaboration with the Janus Pannonius Museum (JPM) based in Pécs.

According to JPM, the public collection of the local Baranya region, the exhibited works convey the visual message of op art and kineticism, which are still valid today.

The works on display were created during a workshop for MOME photography students, which focused on the traditions, presence and innovation of optical art in the 20th century. Through historical and contemporary examples, the work explored the contemporary connections, presence and alternatives of photography among other artistic media.

At the end of the semester, each student presented their work from the course, which took place in the summer of 2021, in a presentation that showed the design process from references to finished works. Subsequently, in the second semester of the 2021-2022 academic year, the course Op art Vasarely exhibition was offered as an optional course for theoretical and design students to collaborate. During the semester, they jointly designed exhibition spaces and further developed ongoing student projects.

In Victor Vasarely's art, kineticism was born out of adaptations of innovations in photography, where black and white plastic units, blurred lines and points of fracture articulate the kinetic work. His graphic studies were revolutionary in introducing compositional endeavors in modern photography such as positive-negative contrasts, enlargement and deformation. His passionate experiments aimed at capturing the optical perception of movement and time as a fourth dimension, a “new vision", according to the JPM's press release.

The exhibition, which runs until May 2 at the Vasarely Museum in Pécs, is part of the Op Art Academy, which was initiated by the museum and will be launched in 2020.