CTA 102 #5 1966

Victor Vasarely created 'CTA 102 #5' with serigraphy and the artwork is composed of rows of graduated circles. You know, standing here, I can almost feel Vasarely's hand guiding each of those little circles into place. Was he trying to create some sort of cosmic rhythm? I wonder what he was thinking when he chose those specific shades of blue and grey. What does that gradient evoke? For me it is a kind of visual hum, like staring into a perfectly still ocean at twilight. Looking at the surface, I’m thinking about the relationship between the mechanical and the hand-made, which seems at the heart of his practice. These circles are not exactly perfect, are they? Like little fingerprints, each slightly different. Even in his more geometric works, you still sense the artist grappling with the material, bending it to his will, questioning his intentions. It’s the artist’s conversation with the medium that makes it sing.