Long before becoming the father of Op Art, Victor Vasarely explored an entirely different visual language — one deeply rooted in surrealism, symbolism, and dreamlike imagery. This original 1940 lithograph is a rare and compelling example of his early work, blending fantastical elements and personal symbolism with striking compositional control.
Rendered almost entirely in shades of midnight blue, the image features a panther-like black creature coiled around an assemblage of objects: grapes, pansies, butterflies, stars, and gears, all floating within an unreal, turbulent seascape. The piece teems with surrealist vocabulary — watchful eyes, mechanical cogs, erupting volcanoes — filtered through Vasarely's unique lens.
At the bottom, Vasarely has written detailed color correction notes in his own hand, revealing the artist’s meticulous involvement in the printmaking process and offering a glimpse into his studio practice at a formative moment in his career.
Highly unusual, both in palette and subject, this lithograph captures Vasarely in transformation — straddling the boundaries between surrealism and the geometric abstraction that would later define his legacy. An extraordinary and scarce artifact for collectors of early Vasarely, surrealist graphics, or pre-war avant-garde printmaking.
Animals - Sea
Trial proof, catalog raisonné: Benavides 1203
Good condition, dirt
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