Fondation Vasarely
Aix-en-Provence
Every day
From 10:30 am to 5:30 pm
1 avenue Marcel Pagnol
13090 Aix-en-Provence
Inaugurated within a year of each other, in February 1976 and January 1977 respectively, the Vasarely Foundation and the Centre Pompidou have maintained close ties—an enduring connection recalled to visitors by Victor Vasarely’s portrait of Georges Pompidou, sculpted in aluminium profiles, which has hung for fifty years in the entrance hall of the Paris museum. Long-standing partners, the two institutions are co-organising a new exhibition celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the "Centre architectonique" (Architectonic Centre) built by the father of Op art in Aix-en-Provence between 1973 and 1976.
© Droits réservés
Projet pour une révolution
Vasarely and Architecture
16 June – 1st November 2026
Conceived to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Vasarely Foundation, inaugurated in 1976, "Projet pour une révolution" (Project for a Revolution) not only revisits the construction of this emblematic building of Op art, whose founding figure was Victor Vasarely (1906-1997), but also reflects on the place and function of architecture throughout his œuvre.
From the first architectural integrations in Caracas in 1954, envisioned as the ideal mode of presentation for his visual creations, to the unrealised project of the Cité polychrome du bonheur (Polychrome City of Happiness), Vasarely moved beyond the synthesis of the arts championed by the Espace group, which he joined in the 1950s, towards a broader reflection on the nature of the artwork itself, as well as on the conditions of its production, dissemination, and conservation within a profoundly social dimension.
Recognised as a public-interest institution since 1971, the Vasarely Foundation is the creation of Victor Vasarely (1906–1997), the father of Op art, and his wife Claire.
Inaugurated in Aix-en-Provence in 1976, what Vasarely called his "Centre architectonique" (Architectonic Centre) is a unique "building-work" unlike any other in the world. Listed as a Historic Monument in 2013, it was awarded the Musée de France label in 2020. Faithful to the artist’s vision of "art for all", the Foundation houses 44 monumental integrations and hundreds of original studies illustrating the concept of the Cité polychrome du bonheur (Polychrome City of Happiness).
Under the presidency of Pierre Vasarely, the artist’s grandson and universal legatee, the institution now stands as a leading centre for kinetic art, dedicated to research, cultural mediation, and the international promotion of Vasarely’s work.
