Victor Vasarely Museum

The Victor Vasarely Museum in Pécs is one of the most important museums on Káptalan Street.

History

Victor Vasarely (Vásárhelyi Győző, 1906–1997), a world‑famous artist, donated many of his works to Pécs; its museum opened in 1976 in the house where he spent the first years of his life. Works by other creators of international geometric, kinetic, conceptual art are also displayed here.

The exhibition follows the artist’s entire oeuvre, which he himself divided from 1947 into periods according to the experience or natural environment to which the works of each period are related. He called his early work (1930–1947) “detours.” In his graphic work he assigned a prominent role to the black‑white and line periods.

From 1930 until his death in 1997 he lived in France. He first donated a collection of serigraphs to the Pécs museum in 1968. The exhibition traces the development of op‑art from decorative textiles, the worldwide known Zebra 1938 versions, through the gradual abstraction of organic or constructive visual experience to geometric black‑white constructive works.

In addition to Vasarely’s works, characteristic documents of international geometric, kinetic, conceptual art are shown here. Outstanding pieces of this collection include works by François Morellet, Jean Gorin, Hans Arp, Günther Uecker, Nicolas Schöffer, Jesus Rafael Soto.