The Association met for its AGM of Thursday December 16, 2004 at 7:30 pm in Aix en Provence, France at Mr Patrick Saintigny’s house, in the presence of several members.

Mrs Jacqueline Gensul, Secretary General
Mr Patrick Saintigny, Treasurer
And Mr Pierre Vasarely, President,

presented the activities of the past year and evoked the projects and events for 2005 and 2006.

1. Presentation of the activity.
The President opened the session.
He thanked the members present and represented but also the 325 members who, throughout the year 2004, had supported the Association.

He recalled that thanks to them several actions had already been undertaken :

- the creation of a web site www.vasarely.net with a monthly average of 7000 hits,

- the preparation of a well-thought-out catalogue : the Association has continued the work initiated by Pierre Vasarely in making an inventory of the original works in the main private and public collections in the whole world,
To this day, we have counted nearly 1007 references of original works,
To do this we made an announcement in the specialised press (insert in the edition of the month of November 2004 of Beaux-Arts Magazine),
Targeted contacts were thus initiated with individual people but also institutions.

- the Municipality of Annet-sur-Marne has inscribed in its projects the purchase of the Victor Vasarely Workshop in order to make a place of memory and for canvassing.
To support the dynamics to this project, the Association put itself forward to play a central role in animating and researching institutional and private partners,

- the Association has also undertaken the inventory of the main public and private places of Victor Vasarely’s architectural works, called “intégrations”, which were done in France and abroad,

- an informative letter, presenting the Association’s activities was addressed to all the members of the Association.
We intend to continue with this document in a regular way.

2. Moral and financial report.
The Association was created on January 29, 2004 and the Treasurer indicated that its resources for the year 2004 were essentially linked to the members’ subscriptions, and to gifts and contributions for some of them – disposing of a premises and computer material – but also voluntary work.

The Treasurer specified that the Association, as from its creation, called on a chartered accountant, who had done the accounting up to December 15.

Products of exploitation Exploitation charges
Subscriptions 1 498 € Purchases of first material 150.29 €
Other products (1) 1 878.50 € Other purchases (2) 2 936.28 €
Total 3 376.50 € Total 3 086.57 €
Result 289.93 €

(1) gift from Pierre Vasarely to the Association
(2) mainly including the expense of the web site creation, the insert in the Beaux-Arts Magazine, travelling expenses, postal and banking expenses.

This accounting situation was unanimously approved

Taking into account the different projects described hereunder and the necessity of setting up more consequent means for realising them, the Association proposed for the year 2005 to request subsidies from the following institutional partners :

- the towns of Aix-en-Provence, Arcueil, Pécs and Budapest,
- the villages of Annet-sur-Marne, Belle-Ile-en-Mer and Gordes,
- the Community of the Area of Aix,
- the Bouches-du-Rhône General Council,
- the Provence-Alpes-Côtes-d’Azur Regional Council,
- the Regional Department for Cultural Affairs,
- the European Community.

Similar steps will be taken with patron companies.

The French Inland Revenue will also be approached for the Association to be “assimilated tax-wise in the matter of gifts” to benefit from the new tax measures in the matter of patronage.

3. Presentation of the 2005 – 2006 activities.
The Secretary General recalled the incredible combination of circumstances : it is the year of a double centenary, that of the death of Paul Cézanne and the birth of Victor Vasarely.

The town of Aix-en-Provence and the Aix area wish to take an essential part in the celebrations of the “Year of Paul Cézanne” with a multitude of activities.
We would like to insert into this cultural dimension the commemoration of Victor Vasarely’s work.

Indeed it seems judicious to make a link between these two big names of modern and contemporary art which cover the XXth century in the heart of a town marked by it cultural and artistic history.

Aix-en-Provence has the chance to have these two big internationally known artists :
- one was born in Aix-en-Provence,
- the other chose to finance his Foundation there, in a place called Jas-de-Bouffan, dear to Cézanne.
In the foundations of his Architectonic Centre, Vasarely wanted to pay tribute to Cézanne by burying in 1974 a parchment entitled “We will be worthy of Cézanne”.

Besides the continuation of the projects initiated in 2004, the Association’s main project for 2005 – 2006 will be to celebrate and honour the creator of Optic Art within the framework of this double centenary.

Pierre Vasarely specified that numerous steps had already been taken with local, national and European personalities :

- Ms Maryse Joissains-Masini, the Mayor of Aix en Provence,
- Ms Claude Pompidou,
- Ms Denise René, co-founder with Victor Vasarely in 1944 of the Denise René Gallery,
- Mr Jean-Luc Bredel, the Regional Director for Cultural Affairs,
- Mr Maurice Chabert, the Mayor of Gordes,
- Mr Jacques Chirac, the President of the Republic who in 1976 inaugurated the Centre of
Aix-en-Provence while he was Prime Minister,
- Mr Bertrand Collette, the Coordinator of the Year of Cézanne 2006,
- Mr Sandor Csernus, the Director of the Hungarian Institute in Paris,
- Mr Gabor Demszky, the Mayor of Budapest,
- Mr Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, the Minister of Culture,
- Mr André Erdos, the Hungarian Ambassador to France,
- Mr Yves Fauqueur, the Sub Prefect in Aix-en-Provence,
- Mr Michel Freysset, the Director of the Cézanne Workshop,
- Mr Christian Marchandeau, the Mayor of Annet-sur-Marne,
- Mr Alfred Pacquement, the Director of the National Museum of Modern Art,
- Mr Josef Sarkany, the Director of the Vasarely Museum in Pécs,
- Mr Rilla Szabo, the Director of the Vasarely Museum in Budapest,
- Mr Laszlo Toller, the Mayor of Pécs,
- etc.

During his life, Victor Vasarely gave to his fatherland Hungary as well as to France, his second homeland, a considerable part of his pictorial and architectural work.

The force of the idea of the “Year Victor Vasarely 2006” is to reunite the French and Hungarian towns around Aix, the beacon for Vasarely’s work, which constitute the artist’s route: Pécs and Budapest (towns with a Museum), Arcueil, Belle-Ile-en-Mer, Annet-sur-Marne and Gordes.

The artist’s route
Victor Vasarely was born on April 9, 1906 in Pécs.
He left Budapest in 1930 and came to live in France.
He was married in Paris, became the father of two children and obtain French nationality in 1959.
He lived in Arcueil, near Paris from 1930 to 1960, then in Annet-sur-Marne, not far from Paris, until 1994.
At Belle-Ile, which he discovered just after the war, he developed part of his graphic period called “Belle-Ile”.
He lived in Provence from 1949 to 1990 in his property in Gordes where he established his workshop when on vacation.
He restored the Renaissance Chateau of Gordes, then in ruins, in order to expose his paintings (Didactic Museum 1970 – 1996).
He conceived and financed alone the Architectonic Centre in Aix-en-Provence (1976) - the land was given by the Aix municipality – to expose his architectural work (proposals for the Polychrome City).
To his father land, he bequeathed large collections:
- in the house where he was born (museum inaugurated in 1978). His work is exposed next to that of his wife, Claire, his son, Yvaral, and numerous other kinetic artists, amongst whom Soto, Morellet, Cruz Diez, etc…
- in the Zichy Chateau in Budapest (1986). Victor Vasarely studied at Muhely in Budapest (Hungarian Bauhaus).
His international career was consecrated in the 50s.
Represented in all the largest private and public collections throughout the whole world, he gave France and Hungary a state-approved institution of renown and two museums.
He died in Paris in 1997.

Panorama of the forthcoming actions within the framework of the centenary of his birth
2006 shall be an occasion for our town, for France and for Hungary to celebrate this international artist of renown.

2005 is the year for setting up these cultural events :

- the Association, with the communication services of the different French and Hungarian public groups sollicited, will call on the different press for cultural events which will be organised within the museums (exhibitions), schools (workshops), universities (conferences), art schools, auditoriums (concerts), etc…
- the MIM (Marseille Computer Music at the Cité de la Musique) wish to create a “path” from Cézanne to Vasarely, accompanied by conferences on Bach and Bartok,
- a twinning could be envisaged between the different French and Hungarian places. Gordes and Annet-sur-Marne already started in 1985 by twinning up to commemorate the artist while he was still alive,
- at the Cité du Livre, contacts have been established with “Ecritures croisées” (crossed writing) to push Hungary and its authors to the fore; in 2004 Poland was the guest,
- a monogram for Victor Vasarely is currently being studied by Pierre Vasarely for 2006; several specialists in kinetic art will take part in this project.

Requests for subsidies will therefore be addressed for the first time to the groups named above to set up and coordinate the events described above.

The Association for the Defence and Promotion of Victor Vasarely’s work wish to further this project and federate the wishes of all.

4.Diverse questions.
- Several members of the Association wanted to understand the relationship between the Vasarely Foundation in Aix-en-Provence and the Association they belong to.

Pierre Vasarely recalled that the Vasarely Foundation is the object of several legal suits implicating Mr Charles Debbasch, the former President from 1981 to 1993 and the Vasarhelyi family; and that the Association for the Defence and Promotion of Victor Vasarely’s work is totally independent from either of these parties.
This “case” which was the main topic of conversation in the 90s is still not totally settled in spite of the sentencing of the former Aix university professor.
In any case, the Association, through its President, expresses its will to collaborate with the Vasarely Foundation, the main symbol of Victor Vasarely’s creation, within the framework of the commemoration.
Pierre Vasarely indicates that he is :
- the only grandson of Claire and Victor Vasarely,
- the former artistic director of the Vasarely Foundation from 1986 to 1997 – Didactic Museum of Gordes and the Architectonic Centre of Aix-en-Provence,
- a member of the French Union of Experts,
- the holder of Victor Vasarely’s moral right in the framework of the Foundation.

All these recalled elements underline his commitment and prove his will the set up, through the Association, his grandfather’s artistic will.

- For the future.
The interest shown through the web site, as well as the dynamics of the members’ network, augurs very favourably for the Association’s activities in the future.

The session was closed at 10 pm.
The next General Meeting will be in the month of May 2005.