The father of the Op Art Movement, Victor Vasarely, was a French-Hungarian artist who utilized geometric shapes and colorful graphics. The artist is known for creating compelling illusions of spatial depth, as seen in his work Vega-Nor (1969). Vasarely’s paintings are inspired and influenced by Bauhaus design principles, Wassily Kandinsky, and Constructivism. Vasarely was born April 9th 1906 in Pecs, Hungary.

He studied medicine at university, however after two years he decided to pursue painting instead. In the late 1920s, Vasarely enrolled at the Muhely Academy in Budapest, much of the courses were based on Bauhaus school in Germany. After moving to Paris in 1930, Vasarely worked as a graphic artist while also creating many proto-Op Art pieces, including Zebra (1937).

Victor Vasarely experimented in a style based in Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism during the 1940s, he eventually arrived at his signature checkerboard style. Vasarely died at age 90 on March 15, 1997 in Paris, France. His works are presently held in the collections of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.