Purple long, 1977

Widely regarded as the 'grandfather’ and leading figure of the Op Art movement, Victor Vasarely was a sculptor and painter whose works often combine colourful graphics with geometric shapes to create the illusion of spatial depth, exemplified in such works as Vega-Nor. Vasarely initially began as a poster artist and graphic designer before experimenting artistically with textural effects and the interplay between shadow and light, resulting in such works as Zebra, which is broadly accepted as one of the first examples of Op Art; the artist worked with numerous materials including Perspex and wood, but only a minimal number of colours and forms. Throughout his career, Vasarely experimented with numerous styles including surrealism and cubism, but was most notably inspired by the methods of Bauhaus and Constructivism, as well as painter and art theorist Wassily Kandinsky. (Artist website)