Jesús Rafael Soto in Penetrable (1973), Parque García Sanabria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, September 1995
Photograph: © Courtesy of Carlos A. Schwartz
Jesús Rafael Soto was a Venezuelan artist, one of the main representatives of kinetic and optical art. Born in Ciudad Bolívar, he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Caracas before moving to Paris, the city where he would reside until his death. In Paris he partnered with a group of abstract artists called Salon des Realités Nouvelles. Inspired by the work of Piet Mondrian and Kazimir Malevich, Soto created a series of repetitive paintings, which were composed of simple geometric shapes. In the decade of 1950 it was tried to capture in its series Metamorfosis (1954) an equivalent of the musical seriality. In 1956, the first kinetic structures were created, his work is characterized by integrating in the work the perception of the viewer in the displacement before the object. From the 1960s he designed penetrable and architectural integration works, such as the decoration of the interior of the UNESCO building in Paris (1970), the interior of the Georges Pompidou National Center for Art and Culture in Paris (1976) and the spaces free Soto's work has been exhibited in many public places, including the lounge of the UNESCO building in Paris (1969) and the Forum of the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris (1987). His work inow resides in several museum collections, including the Tate Modern in London, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Museum of Modern Art Jesus Soto in Bolivar, Venezuela.
Escriture Verticale Orange,1989 Paint on wood and metal 78 7/10 × 39 2/5 × 27 1/2 in (200 x 100 x 69.8 cm) Unique
Jesús Rafael Soto Trois cercles, 1996 15 7/10 × 27 3/5 × 5 9/10 in (40 x 70 x 15 cm) Unique
Maquette Esfera Theoespacio, 1989-2008, Plexiglass structure and painted steel bars (20 9/10 × 13 2/5 × 15 7/10 in) 53 × 34 × 40 cm, Edition 59/75
Espiral Doble, 1955, Screen on pexiglass and steel bars, (15.3 x 15.3 x 6.6 in) 39 x 39 x 17 cm, Edition of 110
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2010
Black and Light, Sommer & Kohl, Berlin, Germany
2009
Jesús Rafael Soto, Galerie Max Hetzler, Zimmerstrasse, Berlin, Alemania
Galería Cayón: Materia Gris, Galería Cayón, Madrid, Spain
Latitudes: Mestres Latino-americanos na Coleção FEMSA, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil
Instalações, Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
2008
Jesús R. Soto, Galería Elvira González, Madrid, Spain
Latitudes: Maestros Latinoamericanos en la Colección FEMSA, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Diagonal, Galería Cayón, Madrid, Spain
Facets, Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, United States
16th Biennale of Sydney, Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Las Implicaciones de la Imagen, Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Arte, Mexico City, Mexico
2007
Latin American Art in the Berardo Collection, Sintra Museu de Arte Moderna, Sintra, Portugal
Sammlung Gutmann, Haus Konstruktiv, Stiftung für konstruktive und konkrete Kunst, Zurich, Switzerland
Tamaño Real, Galería Cayón, Madrid, Spain
The Geometry of Hope, Grey Art Gallery, New York University, NY, United States
2006
Jesús Rafael Soto: Visioni in Movimento, Galleria d´Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy
Jesus Rafael Soto: Vision en Movimiento, Fundación PROA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Estrecho Dudoso, Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo, San José, Costa Rica
Zéro, Musée d'Art Moderne de Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne, France
Art on the Edge, Omaha, NE, Estados Unidos
2005
Jesús Rafael Soto, Visión en Movimiento, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico
Jesús Rafael Soto, Venezuela, Molaa Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA, United States
Soto: A Construção da Imaterialidade, Museu Oscar Niemeyer, Curitiba, Brazil
Soto: A Construção da Imaterialidade, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil
Outside Europe: Aus der Sammlung DaimlerChrysler, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
Das Progressive, Museum Basel, Haus Konstruktiv, Stiftung für Konstruktive und Konkrete Kunst, Zürich, Switzerland
2004
Jesús-Rafael Soto, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, United States
Jesús-Rafael Soto, Galerie Denise René, Espace Marais, Paris, France
Beyond Geometry, Experiments in Form 1940s-70s, Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL, United States
Attraversare Genova, Percorsi e Linguaggi Internazionali del Contemporaneo, Villa Croce Museo d´Arte Contemporanea, Genoa, Italy
Algorithmische Revolution, Zur Geschichte der Interaktiven Kunst, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany
The Daimler Chrysler Collection, Iziko South African National Art Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2003
Jesús-Rafael Soto, Galerie Denise René, Espace Marais, Paris, France
Soto, Galerie Denise René, Rive Gauche, Paris, France
On the Edge: Contemporary Art from the Daimler Chrysler Collection, The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI, United States
Aperceptions, Guislain, États d'Art, Paris, France
The Daimler Chrysler Collection, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany
2002
Arte Múltipla, Galeria 111, Lisbon, Portugal
Moderna Museet C/O Magasin 3, Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
2001
El Arte Abstracto y la Galería Denise René, Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
SITE Santa Fe's Fourth International Biennial, Santa Fe, NM, United States
Accrochage de Groupe, Galerie Denise René, Espace Marais, Paris, Francia
Bienal 50 Anos, Núcleo Histórico, Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
2000
From Cubism to Minimalism: A selection of Works by World Leading Artists, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran
1999
Bis 2000 Deutsche und Internationale Kunst Seit 1960, Galerie Neher GmbH & Co. KG, Essen, Germany
1998
Exposição Retrospectiva de Jesús Rafael Soto, SEEC, Casa Andrade Muricy, Curitiba, Brazil
Jesús Rafael Soto, Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales, Montevideo, Uruguay
1997
Jesús Rafael Soto: Retrospectiva, Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Jesús Rafael Soto: Retrospektive, Stiftung für Konkrete Kunst, Reutlingen, Germany
Bienal do Mercosul, Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
1996
Transformers: A Moving Experience, Wellington City Gallery, Wellington, New Zeland
23rd Bienal de São Paulo, Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Colección Permanente: Novas Incorporacións, Colección Fundación Arco, Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
1990
Jesus Rafael Soto, Quadrat Bottrop, Josef Albers Museum, Bottrop, Germany
Konkret Zehn, Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Nuremberg, Germany
1988
Zero, Un Movimiento Europeo, Fundación Juan March, Madrid, Spain
1986
Point, Ligne, Plan, Musée d´Art Contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, Canada
1984
Soto, Charles Cowles Gallery, New York, NY
Ein Anderes Klima: A Different Climate (II), Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Dusseldorf, Germany
1979
Soto: Oeuvres Actuelles, Centre Pompidou, Musée National d´Art Moderne, Paris, France
1974
Jesús Rafael Soto, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY, United States
1961
Bewogen Beweging, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
