P. 1244 Pentek 1985

This is Victor Vasarely's ‘P. 1244 Pentek’ and it seems to be made with flat colors and hard edges, perhaps screen printing? I love the push and pull of the image; it gives the impression that it's coming out at you while also receding into the distance. Vasarely’s working with circles and squares, creating a kind of warped grid. He’s got the shapes interacting with each other in a dance of form and color. There's something really playful about the whole thing. I can imagine him puzzling it out, shifting things around until they create a sense of optical vibration. It makes me think about Josef Albers, who worked with squares, color, and perception. These guys really invite us to question our own senses, don’t they? It’s like Vasarely is saying, “Hey, let's see what happens when we mess with the rules.”