Description

An extraordinary and rare silkscreen by Victor Vasarely, the originator of Op Art.

This work has been identified as “Gyemant Ond” (1973) by the Olomouc Museum of Art in the Czech Republic from a work in the collection of Pierre Vasarely (the artist’s grandson and executor).  Olomouc has a leading collection of Vasarely’s work.  Elsewhere, however, this work has been called “KEK-EG II”, one of the eight silkscreens from the 1975 portfolio Vega Csillagképek.   (“Csillagképek” is the Hungarian word for “constellations”.)  We have used the more common of the two titles.

Whatever the title, this work is exceptionally scarce.  With deep colors and crisp registration, it is a fine work of serigraphy.  More than that, it is a beautiful work by the master of Op Art in his prime.

This is number 33 out of the edition of 90, marked “FV” (the meaning of which is unknown to me; perhaps “final version”).

Framed in an exceptionally handsome period Nielsen frame of interesting design and surrounded by a wide expanse of bright white textured matting.

In 1971, the publisher Editions du Griffon published the Structure Universelles Du Damier Portfolio consisting of eight heliogravure prints, each about 10.5″ square.  A copy of this work was included in that portfolio.  (This raises a question as to the Olomouc Museum’s identification of the work as being made in 1973, but because there is as yet no catalogue raisonné for Vasarely’s work, we will simply have to live with that ambiguity.)  A copy of this work was published again by Editions du Griffon in 1975.