Composition - Noir sur Gris. 1955/57. by Victor Vasarely, 1908-1997

Victor Vasarely, 1908-1997
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Composition - Noir sur Gris. 1955/57.

Original screenprint in white and black on grey prepared paper. 1955/57. Signed in ink. Inscribed in pencil as 'e.a arcay - artist's proof for Arcay'. Proof for the printers apart from the edition of 100 impressions. Printed at Arcay Studio, Paris. Issued by Galerie Denise René 1960. Rare.

Very fine impression with perfect crisp inking. On cream wove paper prepared with a grey screenprint ground. Generally excellent condition; one trace of a soft crease at the tip of the top righthand margin corner; surface excellent. The full sheet: 29 1/2 x 22 1/4ins (750x540mm)

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An important example of the early period of Vasarely's work in screenprint, with brilliant white overprinted on mat black and on grey prepared paper.

At this date around 1955/57, rather than the intricate patterns and multiple colours of the later work, Vasarely was mostly using a single form, or an interlinked group of two or three forms, with a complex geometric outline set against a monochrome background. The most effective of these compositions were restricted to black and white. In the work above the interaction between the complex shapes in the white central form and the mat black of the background, which has no defined spatial plane, creates the optical illusion of the modelling of space which was Vasarely's theme.

Vasarely early influences were from Mondrian, De Stijl, and from Contructivism. Throughout his earliest period as part of the ,Abstraction Création group he developed linear and geometric abstracts, but it was around 1950 that he began to develop his interest in the use of an optical element. This 'optical abstraction' was to become one of the most important influences in European abstract art in the period of the 1960's and 70's.