The visual effects he created by hand in the mid-twentieth century anticipated the aesthetics of contemporary computer games, digital art and graphic design. His vivid colours, flowing geometric compositions and striking black-and-white patterns continue to captivate viewers, demonstrating the timeless appeal of his artistic vision.

Born in Hungary in 1906, Vasarely became one of the leading pioneers of Op Art, an artistic movement that explores optical illusions through geometric forms, colour and contrast. He studied under László Moholy-Nagy, whose teaching introduced him to the ideas of the Bauhaus. The works of artists and architects such as Wassily Kandinsky, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier and Piet Mondrian also influenced his development. After moving to Paris in 1930, Vasarely worked successfully as a graphic designer, systematically investigating the visual and emotional possibilities of graphic techniques. Over the following decades, Vasarely developed a distinctive approach to geometric abstraction, creating compositions in which carefully arranged shapes and colours produced powerful optical effects.

In the composition RE-NAB-II-B, Victor Vasarely creates the illusion of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. Against a dark background, a golden grid curves around a large, pale blue-grey circular form at the centre. The geometric lines create the illusion of a rounded volume either projecting out from or receding into the surrounding space.

The illusion is heightened by the contrast between the regular structure of the grid and its apparent deformation. At first, the grid appears ordered and symmetrical, but as the lines curve around the central form, the structure becomes visually unstable. The viewer may perceive the form as a sphere, a bulge or an opening into another space. This ambiguity causes the eye to alternate between perceiving the image as a flat pattern of lines and as a three-dimensional object.