Yvaral

Kinetic construction unknown date

The son of Op art pioneer Victor Vasarely, Yvaral (born Jean-Pierre Vasarely) studied advertising and graphic design at the École des Arts Appliqués, in Paris, before experimenting with geometric abstraction, optical painting and kinetic sculpture. In 1960, he co-founded Groupe de Récherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV) (Research Group for Visual Art), a collective that explored the role of the viewer in activating kinetic art through different types of mechanical movements and artificial light. The work of GRAV paved the way for interactive art — art that requires the physical participation of the audience to achieve its aims.

Yvaral introduced the term ‘numerical art’ to describe works composed according to numerical rules. From the 1970s, he used computer programming to digitally manipulate and process images; at the same time, he continued to paint and to create works by hand.