Vasarely is considered one of the founders and pioneers of the mid-century artistic movement known as Op art, which explored the dynamic perceptual effects of pure color and form. Between 1966 and 1974, he produced the series Homage to the Hexagon, in which he exploited the multiple optical effects that could be created using the axonometric cube, a geometric form composed of three rhombuses. Vasarely named his own variant of the geometric shape “Kepler’s cube” after the German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler. In the lithograph "Idom-stri", the Kepler cube is used to create different optical illusions of three-dimensional structures, revealing how a single geometric pattern and two contrasting colors—red and blue—could produce multiple spatial dimensions. In this lithograph from 1986, Vasarely returns to earlier series of works and themes, developing new compositional and color variations.
This text was created in collaboration with the University of Maryland Department of Art History & Archaeology and written by Patricia Ortega-Miranda.