Paura 1984

Victor Vasarely made ‘Paura’ with some kind of screen printing. It is pretty slick, not a painting at all. It feels like a digital rendering that has been printed out. Look at how the color goes from green to blue to red, and those funny distorted octagons, kinda like those perspective grids from the Renaissance but way trippier. It seems like Vasarely was really interested in bending the viewer’s eye. Like, how can we use shapes and color to make something look like it’s popping out or caving in? You can almost feel him playing with optical illusions. I bet he looked at M.C. Escher! It's as if he wanted to make a painting that tickles your brain. Artists are always pushing and pulling against each other, it's like a never-ending conversation!