Pal-Ket 1974

Victor Vasarely created "Pal-Ket," a large canvas now in the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, using a precise arrangement of geometric shapes. The artwork immediately draws you in with its bold use of color and the illusion of depth created by the careful placement of circles and squares. Vasarely’s interest lay in how form and color could create new visual experiences. He used the grid structure of the canvas to challenge our perceptions. The artwork almost seems to vibrate as the eye attempts to reconcile the flat surface with the spherical forms that appear to emerge from it. In Pal-Ket, Vasarely destabilizes the fixed notions of space. He prompts us to question what we see and how we see it. This engagement with perception places the viewer in an active role, constructing and reconstructing the artwork with each glance.