Vasarely’s architectural integrations and his works in public space

Victor Vasarely’s approach was grounded in the principle of uniting art, design, and architecture within a democratic framework that made art accessible to all. Rooted in the interwar Constructivist pursuit of socially engaged art, his vision sought to integrate artistic expression seamlessly into the urban environment. Although the term Cité Polychrome—referring to the aesthetic enhancement of the urban landscape—appeared in his notes as early as 1956, it was fully elaborated in his book Plasti-Cité (1970).

His first architectural commission came in 1954 at the Central University of Venezuela, within the “Synthesis of the Arts” project. Followed by this experience, Vasarely organized Le Mouvement (1955) at the Galerie Denise René in Paris, where his Manifeste Jaune (Yellow Manifesto) argued for the reproducibility of art and defined the artist as a plasticien (“space-focused visual artist”) rather than a painter. Vasarely proposed a modular system of “plastic units” (unités plastiques)—geometric color-form elements that could be assembled algorithmically to generate infinite variations. This modularity, he believed, offered a universal, nonverbal “planetary folklore” capable of harmonizing his abstract system with the civic space.

In 1958, Vasarely began his first Parisian integrations in collaboration with architect Jean Ginsberg, creating a stepped ceramic wall on rue Camou, a version of Tlinko on Avenue de Versailles, and an aluminum wall relief on Boulevard Lannes. From this period onward, he expanded his architectural interventions internationally, carrying his vision to Western and Eastern Europe, Mexico, Canada, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. His projects encompassed railway stations such as Paris Gare Montparnasse and Budapest Déli Pályaudvar; universities including Aix-Marseille, Sorbonne’s Jussieu Campus in Paris, Paul-Valéry in Montpellier, and the Universities of Essen, Bochum, and Bonn; as well as corporate buildings like RTL in Paris, Zellweger Park Ltd in Uster, Switzerland, and Rosenthal in Berlin. He also realized projects for a wide range of public and cultural institutions, including the National Theatre in Győr, the Rainier III Auditorium in Monte Carlo, as well as other notable sites such as the Grenoble Winter Olympics speed-skating ring, the Parroquia del Señor de la Resurrección in Mexico City, and the portrait of Georges Pompidou in the lobby of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Several of these works were co-designed with his son, Yvaral (Jean-Pierre Vasarely).

Márton Orosz

Rue Camou, Paris
1958

Boulevard Lannes, Paris
1960

Tabor (Para-vista),  Campus de Jussieu (Sorbonne), Paris
Colored lacquered blades.
1967

Oerveng, RTL Headquarters, Paris 
Vasarely & Yvaral collaboration
1971

Gare Montparnasse, Polychrome wall frescoes, Paris
Vasarely & Yvaral collaboration       
1971                                                                      

Hommage à Georges Pompidou, Centre Pompidou
Vasarely & Yvaral collaboration
1977

Entrance gate, Faculty of Letters and Social sciences, Montpellier
1966

Capella, Kinetic wall, Grenoble
Speed ring, Olympic Stadium
1968

Science faculty of Saint-Jérôme, Marseille
Kroa & Gamma
1972

Tri-Hexa (Sculpture-Signal), Flaine
1973

Sculptures Postes & Télécommunications
1977-1978

Biome, Merieux laboratory, Lyon
Vasarely & Yvaral collaboration                                                                                            
1988

Hexa Grace, Monaco auditorium 
Volvic enameled lava
1979

Canopus, Paedagogische Hochschule, Essen
1965

Riu-Kiu, Bonn University
Vasarely & Yvaral collaboration
1968

Ruhr University, Bochum (RFA)
Vasarely & Yvaral collaboration
1971

Deutsche Bundesbank, conference room, Frankfurt RFA
Vasarely & Yvaral collaboration                                                     
1971

Rosenthal Studio Haus, Berlin
1978

Stage curtain, Neustadt Auditorium
Vasarely & Yvaral collaboration
1984

Kui-Siu, Gyor Theater, Hungary
1978

Kecel, Cultural Center, Lecek
1984

Herpain Showroom, Bruxelles
1967

Gestalt, Zellweger Park, Zurich
1971

Tridim (Sculpture-Signal), Neuchâtel, Suisse
1974

Caracas University, Venezuela
1954

In 1954, Vasarely took part in Carlos Raúl Villanueva’s “Synthesis of the Arts” project at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas. During this commission, he created several major works: Homage to Malevich, a large ceramic-tile mural with a rhombus jutting into space, suggesting a temporal-spatial dimension; Sophia, a set of three ceramic panels based on his Naissances composition, which relies on the illusory movement of rhythmically repeated planar lines; and Positive-Negative, a perforated aluminum relief of overlapping geometric shapes that created optical illusions as people moved past it. These works represented the artist’s first attempt to translate his compositions into three-dimensional space in a public context, aligned with his theoretical framework by foreshadowing his 1955 Manifeste Jaune (Yellow Manifesto), in which Vasarely spearheaded the concept of polychromatic abstraction realized through architectural means.   

Sonora, Parroquia del Señor de la Resurrección, Mexico city
Pyramid-shaped stained glass window, made of Altuglas
1972

Vancouver Academy of Music, Canada
1977

Kinetic Sculpture “Positive-Negative”, Jerusalem Museum
1967

Sculptures of the Jeddah Corniche, Saudi Arabia
1982

Nuclear Towers
1980