(Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela, 1923 – París, Francia, 2005)
Collaborator of Villanueva in the sculptural ornamentation of the University City of Caracas and one of the most innovative artists in America. In 1955 he took part in the great exhibition at the Denise René Gallery, together with kinetic works by Duchamp, Calder, Vasarely, Tinguely, etc. This experience culminated in another exhibition presented successively in Amsterdam, Denmark, and Stockholm, where the popular interest in this trend was demonstrated by the fact that the exhibitions were visited by more than one hundred thousand people.
(From the brochure of the I Exhibition)
Jesús Rafael Soto was born in Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela, in 1923. He is one of the main representatives of optical and kinetic art. He received his training in Caracas and later directed the School of Fine Arts of Maracaibo until 1950, when he moved to Paris, where he made his mark internationally. Inspired by Cubist and Constructivist influences, to which must be added the influence of Vasarely, he achieved his characteristic style, marked by an essential concern for the visual representation of movement. The transition to Kinetic art took place in 1955, when Soto began to make overprints of spirals on plexiglass which overlapped in a sense of depth. From these overlays he moved on to others through the application of threads or other metallic elements on a background of stripes that seem to corrode, and in part dissolve, the forms in front of it. In its application to environmental art, this effect forces the viewer to doubt all his instinctive reactions to an enclosed space. In public spaces, however, it is the playful factor what he pursues.
He has received numerous prizes and distinctions: “WoW Prize” at the Sao Paulo Biennial, Brazil 1963; “Daniel Bright Bruce” at the Venice Biennial 1964; “Grand Prize at the Second American Art Biennial”, Cordoba, Argentina 1964; etc. He holds honorary doctorates from the Universidades de Oriente, Venezuela (1978); Los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela (1990), and Guayana, Venezuela (1994).
From his work integrated into architecture, it is worth noting “Volumen Suspendido” (Centre Georges Pompidou 1989), “Volumen Virtual Polícromo” (Cologne 1984), “Media Esfera Azul y Verde” (Expo. Seville 1992), etc.
(From the documents of the II Exhibition)