Yapoura 1954

Victor Vasarely made this eye-popping painting, Yapoura, with black and white paint, meticulously building up a pattern of shapes. I can just picture him carefully laying down each form, responding to the last, to create a field of visual tension. I imagine Vasarely’s thought process as he made this painting. He was probably thinking about the grid and how to undo it. There’s a real playfulness here, the way the white ovals curve and bend, like light rippling across water. The texture looks pretty smooth, which makes the illusion of depth even more pronounced. This push-and-pull between flatness and depth is something other artists have also played with. It’s like a visual game where the artist sets the rules, but the viewer gets to play along, interpreting how the forms on the canvas morph and shift. It’s a reminder that painting is like having a conversation, stretching back through time.