Vasarely by Robert C. Morgan Widely considered the father of Op art, the Hungarian-born artist Victor Vasarely (1906–1997) was instrumental not only in provoking a school of thought based on the relationship between art and science, but in creating some of the most striking geometric paintings in the history of late Modernism. This book, which gathers together a generous selection of his most significant works, celebrates his immense intelligence, passion, and artistry. First coming to prominence in Europe, Vasarely's work was included in the groundbreaking 1965 exhibition "The Responsive Eye" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In the years following this exhibit, Vasarely rose to international attention, opening art and culture to an imagery shaped by digital applications, and creating, with his optical icons, a new direction for art. Robert C. Morgan's text provides fresh insight into Vasarely's startlingly precise and hallucinatory images, discussing the evolution of the artist's work and of the ideas that shaped it. Among the many Vasarely explored, one of the most essential to his career was the idea of a utopian art form available to all, a democratized aesthetic that could transmit basic human values and thereby transform society. Vasarely—published on the occasion of a retrospective of the artist's work at the Naples Museum of Art in Florida—recognizes his achievement as an artist and as the visionary who gave art to the computer. Robert C. Morgan is an art historian, artist, and art critic who has written extensively on modernist and contemporary art and on issues of globalization and culture. His books include Art into Ideas: Essays on Conceptual Art, Beyond Modernism and Conceptual Art, and The End of the Art World. He is the editor of books on artists Gary Hill and Bruce Nauman and, most recently, on the late writings of Clement Greenberg. He teaches at the School of Visual Arts and at the Pratt Institute in New York City and was the 1999 recipient of the Arcale award for art criticism presented in Salamanca, Spain. January 2005, hardback, 9 x 10 in., 128 pages, 50 color illustrations, 10 in black and white ISBN 0-8076-1538-2 $35.00 (Can. $51.00)