Planetary Folklore Participations No. 2, ‘Algorithms’ 1971

Victor Vasarely made this painting, ‘Planetary Folklore Participations No. 2, ‘Algorithms’ using vivid primary colours. Look at how the painting came into being, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition, how he takes a limited vocabulary of shapes and colours, and then he just runs with it. I can just imagine Vasarely in his studio, maybe trying to work through the constraints of a very limited, self-imposed system. He was probably thinking about the basics, how circles can sit next to squares, and how red pops against blue. It's interesting how the eye wants to find a pattern, like it's trying to decode some hidden message, or a glitch in the matrix. Each shape is a unit, each pixel, building up something larger than itself. It's a conversation between the artist and the materials, and between the shapes themselves. It’s this ongoing exchange that inspires creativity. Ultimately, this painting embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations, encouraging us to participate in its ongoing creation.