In creating his architectural center in 1976, Victor Vasarely made a gesture of exceptional significance and generosity. This French artist of Hungarian origin (Pécs 1906 – Paris 1997), internationally recognized as the father of Op Art, a specialist in optical and kinetic effects, as well as a brilliant advertising illustrator, created in Aix-en-Provence “La Cité polychrome of happiness “, bringing together visual artists, architects and urban planners, and wished to promote a social art accessible to all.
Vasarely Foundation, hall n°5
Reflecting on the art and avant-garde look that Victor Vasarely focused on the role of the artist in the twentieth century, the Foundation was created to popularize art without cultural or social discrimination: an art for all; accessible to everyone.
Avant-garde architecture, the Foundation is thought of as a gigantic lumino-kinetic sculpture where the optical animations of the facade prefigure the kinetic games of the 42 monumental integrations that we discover inside the building.
The most famous works of Victor Vasarely are presented to the Foundation in the form of monumental works allowing the visitor to appreciate the outcome to which Vasarely brings geometric abstract painting under the name of kinetic art. Vasarely was one of the promoters of this movement, as well as his son Yvaral, visual artist and graphic designer. The Foundation presents their works, as well as those of contemporary artists who work on the interactions between the work and the public in temporary exhibitions.
Season greetings to you all
Dear members, friends and sympathizers,
We wish you happy end of year celebrations and invite you again to attend the concert ‘A Happy New Year’ which we are offering in partnership with the vocal ensemble AD FONTES. This concert with a British repertoire from the Renaissance to the 20th century will take place on December 28, 2019 at 4 p.m. at the Vasarely Foundation. Reservations and information on 04 42 93 22 98.
Next year we will meet you for a new cycle of conferences:
• Tuesday January 14 at 10:30 am ‘Animals in modern and contemporary art‘ by Agnès Ghenassia
• Thursday 23 January at 6 p.m. ‘The stars and the universe, an odyssey in space and time‘ by Jacques Drouot
• Tuesday February 11 at 10:30 am ‘The portrait, from the 20th to the 21st century’ by Agnès Ghenassia
• Friday February 14 at 6:00 p.m. ‘Valentine’s Day conference: the kisses of the artists’ by Agnès Ghenassia
If you have not yet joined or renewed your membership, we invite you to do so and remember that it will give you the right to free access to the Vasarely Foundation throughout the year upon presentation of the 2020 card as well only at the reduced rate for our conferences.
We thank you for your loyalty and look forward to seeing you again soon.
Joachim Rothacker
Trip to Budapest and Pécs from the 27th of May to the 1st of June 2020
The Friends of the Vasarely Foundation offer you, accompanied by Agnès Ghenassia,
a trip to Budapest and Pécs from May 27 to June 1, 2020.
Budapest and Pécs are the two Hungarian cities to which Victor Vasarely donated part of his work and both dedicate a museum to the famous child of the country.
But Budapest is above all a dynamic, cheerful European metropolis, which preserves the traces of a rich and tumultuous past with baroque districts, rococo, art nouveau, Bauhaus (..and Stalinist architecture), which has beautiful museums and perpetuates in daily of ancient traditions, such as thermal baths, crafts, and a cuisine rich in goulash, stews and creamy pastries. In addition, during the last week of May, we will enjoy a biennial of contemporary art which allows dynamic gallery owners to promote the young scene of Hungarian creators.
We will devote a day to visiting Pécs, 200 km southwest of Budapest (round trip by bus), a small university and cultural town famous among other things for its Zsolnay (art nouveau style) ceramic factory.
The stars and the universe, an odyssey in space and time, the 23rd of January 2020 at 6:00pm
A conference by Jacques Drouot
Taking the measurement of the scale of distances and times by traveling through the solar system, the Milky Way and other galaxies. Discussing the life of stars, from their birth to their death, before tackling the past and the future of the entire universe.
Becoming aware of the role of stars in our environment and how situate ourselves in this immensity.
Thurday January 23rd 2020 at 6:00pm
MEMBERS ENTRY FEE : 5€
NON MEMBERS : 7€
Fondation Vasarely
Jas de Bouffan
1 avenue Marcel Pagnol
13090 Aix-en-Provence
Cycle of conferences by Agnès Ghenassia
Kisses of the artists, Saint-Valentine special, Friday the 14th of february 2020 at 6:00pm
A conference by Agnès Ghenassia A particularly fruitful theme that will take us under the sign of Eros, through centuries of painting and sculpture. Friday teh 14 February 2020 at 6:00 pm ENTRY FEE MEMBERS : 5€NON MEMBERS : 7€ Fondation VasarelyJas de Bouffan1 avenue Marcel Pagnol 13090 Aix-en-Provence
Animals in contemporary art (second part), 11th of February 2020 at 10:00am
A conference by Agnès Ghenassia In sculpture, many artists renew the tradition of the old Cabinets de Curiosités by imagining all kinds of hybridizations, others divert the traditional use of taxidermy to express their empathy towards the animal world.Finally, since the 1970s, the use of live animals, sometimes questionable, has been the tireless desire to reduce the gap between art and life. Tuesday 11th of February 2020 at 10:30am MEMBERS ENTRY FEE : 5€NON MEMBERS : 7€ Fondation VasarelyJas de Bouffan1 avenue Marcel Pagnol 13090 Aix-en-Provence
Animals in modern and contemporary art, January 14th at 10:30am
A conference by Agnès Ghenassia Associate Professor of Fine Arts and Lecturer of Modern and Contemporary Art The animal is present in many artistic approaches, but how? simple motif, artist's alter-ego, metaphor for a people or all of humanity, memories of the tales of our childhood, the embodiment of a nostalgia for the "savage" ... Finally, are there any Are there works that truly serve the animal cause? Tuesday December 14th 2019 at 10h30am MEMBERS ENTRY FEE : 5€NON MEMBERS : 7€ Fondation VasarelyJas de Bouffan1 avenue Marcel Pagnol 13090 Aix-en-Provence
Art and Nature, season 2, December 3rd 2019 at 10h30am
A conference by Agnès Ghenassia Associate Professor of Fine Arts and Lecturer of Modern and Contemporary Art Among the proliferation of postures and contemporary artistic practices, painters revisit the tradition of landscape and the gaze on the garden, sculptors imagine hybrid poetic man / nature and ecologically engaged artists try to mobilize the public or react to our collective concerns. © Philippe Echaroux 2016Philippe Echaroux went in 2016 to meet a tribe of Indians from the Amazon. By mixing street art and photography, he captured portraits of members of this tribe and projected...
Art and nature, the 5th of Novembre at 10:30am
A conference by Agnès Ghenassia Associate Professor of Fine Arts and Lecturer of Modern and Contemporary Art Long present in Western art in the form of landscape painting, nature had been somewhat absent from the preoccupations of the "avant-gardes". It made a spectacular comeback in the 1970's in different forms: Land Art is manifested in the landscape and many artistic interventions take nature both as support and as material. Painting also confronts nature, earth, forest, rocks, garden ...As the history of art is intimately linked to the history of ideas, our relationship to nature has...
Modern art and design, conference of the 25th of June 2019
In the twentieth century, being modern meant chasing ornament. So the exclamation "it's decorative!" Described with contempt a superficial painting, without a real artistic dimension.How, after having dreamed of a fusion between major and minor arts, have painters managed to deny the decorative dimension of painting? Who resisted this separation and played "on both counts"?From this conflictual relationship, contemporary artists have often taken with humor putting the decorative, ornamental, even kitsch in the heart of their practice. Tuesday June 25th 2019 at 10:30 am Salle Armand Lunel,...
Monochrome, a twists and turns adventure, conference of the 28th of May 2019
Nothing is more disturbing to an uninitiated than a monochrome painting, a painting of the absence of representation.However, the monochrome adventure started in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century, then embodied by Yves Klein, has continued to develop, between nihilism and sense of the absolute, to the point of becoming a genre in its own right that is surprisingly rich in plastic and conceptual possibilities. Tuesday May 28th 2019 at 10:30 am Salle Armand Lunel, Bibliothèque Méjanes, Aix-en-Provence
Art and sciences, conference of the 19th of March 2019
Whether they have themselves first benefited from a scientific background or they need to collaborate with biologists, mathematicians, architects, computer scientists, to implement their projects, some contemporary artists produce works at the crossroads of art and science.The recent exhibition of Tomas Saraceno at the Palais de Tokyo, for example, is the result of a collaboration between biologists, cosmonauts and philosophers. Tuseday 19th of March 2019 at 10:30 am Vasarely Foundation Aix-en-Provence
Space, time, light and sound in contemporary artistic practices, conference of the 26th of February 2019
Many installations today involve all the senses. While some are technologically complex, others are at the crossroads of DIY and poetry. All aim to enrich the field of our perceptions, taking us away from those that the contemporary world offers us daily. Tuesday 26th of february at 10:30 am Vasarely Foundation Aix-en-Provence
Valentine’s day, do love and creation work together ?
This question makes it possible to explore a wide variety of cases among couples of artists, ranging from complicity to rivalry, from partnership to ego warfare, and reveals the evolution of manners and society over the course of the year. Twentieth century as to the look at creative women. Thursday the14th of February 2019 at 18:00 pm Vasarely Foundation,1 avenue Marcel PagnolAix-en-Provence 13090