ART MARKET WATCH
by Deborah Ripley



In 1965, following his starring role in the Museum of Modern Art’s now-famous "The Responsive Eye" exhibition, Hungarian artist and Op Art inventor Victor Vasarely (1906–1996) became an international art superstar. For the next 15 years, the public’s appetite for Vasarely’s dizzying designs seemed insatiable. In an effort to meet demand, as well as to bring his art to the masses, he maintained a studio that presaged those of Jeff Koons or Damien Hirst, employing legions of assistants to pump out paintings from his maquettes, as well as creating graphic editions and multiples. He sold prints directly in his Vasarely Center on Madison Avenue in New York City, and also made large editions for Circle Fine Art, a "fine art retailer" with a chain of galleries nationwide.

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