GENERAL MEETING OF JUNE 6, 2005

The Association met at the General Meeting of Monday June 6, 2005 at 7 pm at 19, Cours Sextius in Aix-en-Provence, France in the presence of 32 adherents, 147 others having sent in their powers of attorney.

Patrick Saintigny, the Treasurer and Pierre Vasarely, the President, presented the activities of the last year and evoked the projects and events of the year 2006.

1. President’s introduction.
Pierre Vasarely opened the session and begged the assembly to excuse Mrs Jacqueline Gensul, the Secretary General, absent for medical reasons.

He thanked Mr Patrick Monge for letting the Association hold their General Meeting on his premises as well as the members present or represented who, throughout 2004, had demonstrated their support.

2. Moral report and vote.
The President handed over the minutes of the General Meeting of December 16, 2004 and evoked the actions undertaken by the Association :

- thanks to the setting up of the web site www.vasarely.net, his knowledge of the works of art and his personal contacts, he has continued preparing the catalogue at a sustained rhythm.

- the communications in Beaux Arts Magazine and Art Jonction with the article in Art Actuel of January 2005 has given the Association a better position.
There is a strong demand from the artistic world (collectors, museums, auction houses, etc…) for better legibility of Victor Vasarely’s paintings,

- the project initiated by Annet-sur-Marne to purchase Victor Vasarely’s workshop to make a place for canvassing and of memory has been suspended momentarily.
The financial and political contingencies have prevented a rapid fulfilment of the project, also because of the inheritance problems, Claire Vasarely (1909 – 1990) Victor Vasarely’s wife, her estate is still open, while those of Victor Vasarely (1906 – 1997) and Jean-Pierre Vasarely (1934 – 2002) have now been added to it,

- the Association continues its action for “2006”, the year of the centenary of Victor Vasarely’s birth, towards a celebration of the Hungarian-born French artist’s work.
(see minute of December 16, 2004),

A discussion between the Board and the members present started.

The 2004 minutes were put to vote and adopted unanimously.

3. Financial report and vote.
Patrick Saintigny took the chair.

He proceeded by reading and analysing the 2004 balance sheet such as it was presented in the minutes of December 16, 2004.

The Association’s adherents made it possible, thanks to their subscriptions and / or voluntary work, to set up the actions described below, in particular the setting up of a web site, the communications to the specialised press concerning the preparing of the catalogue, contacts with third party.

He thanked Mr Christopher Booth, the Director of Provence Live, in particular, for the free updating of the Association’s web site.

Requests for subsidies were sent to the town of Aix en Provence, the Community of the Area of Aix, the Bouches-du-Rhône’s General Council, the Provence-Alps-Côte-d’Azur Regional Council, and the Regional Department for Cultural Affairs.

To this day the Association has not received any official reply; they will have to go before various commissions during the month of July 2005.

The Treasurer commented on the 2005 provisional budget given to different institutions in the framework of the request for subsidies.

This budget takes into account the activities set out in detail in the minutes of December 16 last.

Details of the 2005 provisional budget

The Treasurer recalled that, obviously, the sum of the postal expenses is directly linked to the attribution of the solicited subsidies, and that consequently the budget and future events will be adapted to the reality of the funds given by the different institutions for the best of the Association.

The 2004 budget sheet and the 2005 provisional were put to vote and were approved unanimously.

4. Fixing the amount for the subscription for 2005.
The Treasurer recalled that an official request had been handed in during the first term to the French Inland Revenue 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.
No answer has been given as of today.

Considering this situation, the Treasurer proposed to put the subscription down to 5 euros for a simple adhesion and 10 euros for a couple and asked the adherents present their opinion on this proposition.

It resulted from the different interventions that decreasing the subscription, even quite a bit, does not change the members’ will to continue their action in favour of the Association.

The continuation of the 2004 subscriptions was evoked :

An active member Member benefactor
- simple adhesion 20 euros - simple adhesion 100 euros or more
- adhesion for a couple 30 euros

This proposition was put up to vote and was voted in unanimously that they remain the same for 2005.

5. Actuality and debate.
Several members then asked the President to explain the latest developments of the “Debbasch Affair”.

Pierre Vasarely indicated that this situation had been legally concluded last May 11 with the sentencing by the Court of Appeals of Aix-en-Provence of the former President of the Vasarely Foundation.

He recalled that this affair is well in the past, there are others which are more important as to Victor Vasarely’s work and the Vasarely Foundation.

The President then gave the adherents two explicative notes on the exact situation of the Vasarely Foundation :
- the Vasarely Foundation 1966 – 2006 “some dates and the durability”,

- Pierre Vasarely’s introductory declaration which was handed to the administrators of the Vasarely Foundation on May 30, 2005,

And reported on the decision of the Court of Appeal of Paris of March 24, 2005, confirming the decision of the High Court of Paris of June 2, 2003, which validated him as Victor Vasarely’s legatee.

As the President of the Vasarely Foundation feigns to ignore these legal decisions, Pierre Vasarely indicated that he would have to institute legal proceeding, in his personal name, against the institution created by his grandfather.

Pierre Vasarely then evoked the remarkable didactic exhibition “l’Oeil Moteur, Art Optique et Cinétique 1950 – 1975” (the Eye, Optic and Kinetic Art) organised at the Museum of Modern Art in Strasbourg from May 13 to September 25, 2005, and incited the members present to go and discover or rediscover the works of this movement.
“The return of kinetic vibrations.
Half a century after it first appeared, kinetic art emerges from purgatory.
In vogue during the “glorious thirties”, this tendency of which the most famous remains Victor Vasarely, is the object of this exhibition in Strasbourg.
An occasion to reassess a diverse and audacious movement which counted amongst others Yaacov Agam and Nicolas Schöffer”.
Abstract from Le Monde, Philippe Dagen, June 5 and 6, 2005.

Within the framework of its 2005 activities, the Workshop of Gordes, association under the Law of 1901, called on Pierre Vasarely on June 3 last to close their cycle of conferences on artistes who had lived in Gordes “from André Lhote to Vasarely”.
The following conferences were given :
- "Deyrolle" by Georges Richar-Rivier, from the School of Superior Studies in Social Sciences,
- "Degottex, beyond the sign" by Hubert Besacker, art critic and professor of the National Superior Schools of Art,
- "Chagall with two voices" by Pierre Provoyeur, curator of the Calvet Museum in Avignon and former curator of the Chagall Museum.
- "Vasarely : from painting to architecture" by Pierre Vasarely.

6. Diverse questions.
None.

The session closed at 8:50 pm.