Tsika 1976

Victor Vasarely made "Tsika" with a screenprint, and when I look at it, I think about how a painting doesn’t just materialize out of nowhere. There’s a kind of back-and-forth, a call and response as it slowly comes into being through intuition. I can imagine Vasarely making a decision to use a grid and then responding to it, working within a structure but also pushing against it. What was it like for him to create a whole world from these squares? I am drawn to that deep red cube in the foreground. It's as if it is saying something, communicating feeling through its very presence. The color choices and the way that they interact give it a vibrating energy. Vasarely’s kind of optical painting reminds me of other artists like Bridget Riley, who were also interested in how we perceive and experience the world around us. In the end, all artists are just having a conversation with each other, and that includes you and me, and that’s where the real magic is!