Victor Vasarely
Bellatrix II
Date 1957
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 194.3 x 129.8 x 3.2 cm
Inventory ID UID 102-588
588.jpg
This painting belongs to a series called Noir-Blanc [Black-White] (1951-1963), which includes the paintings Lucon (1955) Andrómeda (1955-1958), Citra-négatif (1955-1959), Riu-Kiu (1956), Vega et Eridan (1957) and Cleo (1958-1961), which Vasarely created in black on a white background and vice-versa. He wrote: ‘An old law of physics teaches us: White = the body of colours = light. Black = lack of colour = shadow. White and black = maximum contrast = positive and negative duality. [...] I’ve said “black and white” to better convey the works in newspapers, magazines, on television, in cinema, so as to explain with minimum entropy. But this goes further: “black and white, “yes and no”: the work can be created on an electronic machine'. (Vasarely, Nouvelles éditions françaises, Paris, 1978). In the upper section he inscribes the two elements, the circle and the square, that will be represented. The joining of the, more or less cut off, circles creates squares and ‘secondary squares’, a sequence of small variations that force the viewer to enter the game proposed by the painter. This work is enlarged from a study for printing on fabric intended for a silk factory in Lyon. AC
Denise René gallery, Paris; Philippe Dotremont, Brussels; acquired at Christie’s, London, 24 June 1993.