Black and white period

With the Black-White period (1954-1960), Vasarely returned to his graphic studies, his work on linear networks and his undulatory deformations. At the same time, he became interested in the techniques of photography and produced “photographisms” made from the superposition of two glass plates.

In 1955, at the Denise René Gallery in Paris, the emphasis was placed on kinetic art. Vasarely and other artists such as Duchamp, Man Ray, Calder, Tinguely, or Agam, exhibit their research on the theme of movement. The same year Vasarely publishes his “Yellow Manifesto” which states the notion of “kinetic plastic”. He thus revived the research of the constructivist pioneers, but also the teaching of the Bauhaus. The principle of the optical illusion proceeds from the plastic unit constituted by two contrasting color forms which will be black and white until 1960. The principle of the optical illusion proceeds from the plastic unit made up of two contrasting color forms which will be the black and the white until 1960. From these plastic units and their tilting which transforms them, a notion of movement and space appears.