Jesús Rafael SOTO

Triptico Azul, Negro y Violetta (Blue, Black and Red Triptych) 1977
Mixed media
2030 x 2030 x 50 mm
International Art Collection, Auckland Art Gallery

In this fine example of a wall-based Kinetic work, ladders of horizontal wires are suspended in precarious equilibrium, centimetres from a finely striated panel. The slightest draft of air disturbs their balance, causing them to seesaw about their centre of gravity. This movement induces a perceived optical vibration similar to a moiré pattern. The visual affect is a 'dematerialisation' of the artwork and a highly ambiguous spatial impression.

JESÚS RAFAEL SOTO, (1923 - 2005), Venezuelan, painter and installation artist who is regarded for his work within the International movement of Optical and Kinetic art popular in the mid twentieth century.

He began his artistic career, as a boy, painting cinema posters. Between 1942-7 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Caracas where he formed friendships with his fellow students Cruz-Diez and Otero. From 1947-50 he was Director of the School of Fine Arts in Maracaibo and held his first one-man exhibition at the Taller Libre de Arte, Caracas, in 1949. In 1950 he moved to Paris and began associating with Yaacov Agam, Jean Tinguely, Victor Vasarely, and other artists connected with the Salon des Realites Nouvelles and the Galerie Denise Rene.

From 1951 he began to make his work more optical and made paintings based on the repetition of identical geometrical units. Between 1952-7 he superimposed sheets of perspex marked with a stripe or spiral pattern in front of a patterned plane; the movement of the spectator caused the lines to appear to move, vibrate and dematerialise. He then made what he termed 'Vibration Structures', with a wire structure in front of a background of black and white lines. From 1962 his paintings often included suspended bars and fixed plaques. It was from 1965 that he made a number of wall-sized pieces, with repetition of identical units, followed by environmental installations known as 'Penetrables'; interactive sculptures which consisted of square arrays of thin, dangling tubes through which observers could walk.

He completed many public commissions, and his work has been exhibited in the major European and American Art Galleries. In 1973 he founded a museum of modern art at Ciudad, Bolivar.

He died January 14, 2005.