(Pecs, Hungary, 1906–1997 Paris) “Helion II”, signed Vasarely, on reverse titled, signed, dated 1957, 64, and with dimensions, tempera on wooden panel, 62 x 72 cm, framed, (PP)

Provenance:
Private Collection, Cologne;
Private Collection, Paris

The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Pierre Vasarely.

The work will be included in the “Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint” by Victor Vasarely currently being compiled by the Fondation Vasarely, Aix-en-Provence.

In 1947 on Belle-Ile-en-Mer, art critic and naïve art collector Anatole Jakovsky introduced his two guests to one another - Victor Vasarely and the painter Jean Hélion. Friendship blossomed between the two men, and the island’s beauty inspired one of Vasarely’s most significant periods, known as his Belle-Ile period. In ensuing years, Vasarely and Hélion met again for their holidays and were also reunited at the Salon de May and the Réalités Nouvelles in Paris where both artists were exhibited. Although Jean Hélion returned to figurative painting 1947, Victor Vasarely later chose to pay tribute to him by using his surname as a title. In his work ‘HELION II’, Vasarely makes use of the circle and the square, using them in juxtaposition but also bringing them together using complex modulation. He reminds his friend Hélion of the latter’s neoplastic work of the thirties – similar to Piet Mondrian’s – as well as his involvement with Constructivist artists, most notably of all in the Art Concret periodical he co-founded. Vasarely’s restrained use of colour (black and white) and the unexpected way in which he combines shape (circles and squares) results in a work on infinite combinatorial possibilities infused with profound spirituality, dedicated to his painter friend. (Pierre Vasarely)