Jesús Rafael Soto
Jesús Rafael Soto was a Venezuelan op and kinetic artist, a sculptor and a painter.
His works can be found in the collections of the main museums of the world, including Tate, Museum Ludwig, Centre Georges Pompidou, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna and MoMA. One of the main museums of art in Venezuela, in his home town, has his name in tribute to him.
Early life
Jesús Rafael Soto was born in Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela. The eldest of four children born to Emma Soto and Luis Garcia Parra, a violin player. From a very young age, Soto wanted to help support his family anyway he could, but art was the most interesting to him. He picked up the guitar and also began recreating famous pieces of art that he found in various books, magazines and almanacs.At 16, Soto started his serious artistic career when he began to create and paint posters for the cinemas in Ciudad Bolivar. <
In 1938, Soto participates in a student group affiliated to surrealism ideas and publish in the local journal some poems that scandalize the society. In the group, Soto learns about automatic writing and charcoal drawing. <
Education
In 1942 he received a scholarship to study artistic training at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Artes Aplicadas in Caracas, finishing his studies in 1947. Once there, he took classes in "pure art" and the "training course for instructors in art education history." The director of the school, Antonio Edmundo Monsanto, was instrumental to Soto’s career as well as other very important Venezuelan artist since he often brought inspirations from foreign countries to his students, including the latest from the avant-garde: cubism.<
Influences
After Soto had graduated from Escuela de Artes Plasticas y Artes Aplicadas, receiving a teaching degree, he was then hired to be the director of the Escuela de Bellas Artes de Maracaibo from 1947 to 1950. When he was teaching there, he received a government grant to travel to France, and settled in Paris.In France, Soto discovered Paul Klee and Piet Mondrian’s work, and the latter suggested the idea of ‘dynamizing the neoplasticism’. This, joined with Soto's will to create a new sort of movement that would add to three dimensional art concluded in associations with Yaacov Agam, Jean Tinguely, Victor Vasarely, and other artists connected with the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles and the Galerie Denise René.
Career
In the beginning, Soto painted post-impressionist works, latter getting interested in Cubism. After getting in touch with Malevich, Mondrian and the constructivists, Soto started to experiment with optical phenomena and op art and then he began to make art that was more than just pictures.The first serial works
In the 1950s, Soto experimented with serial art: the repetition of formal elements in the plan, the depersonalization of the work and the revelation of the relativity of the vision. He achieved the reproduction of vibratory phenomena and, above all, the rupture of notions like composition and equilibrium. Making the work of art a fragment of an infinite reality, that could be repeated without varying its essential structure. Without a beginning, an end, up, down, right, left. Helped by notions from the mathematics and music fields, Soto makes his serial art.Incorporation of time and real movement
The next step on Soto's works was incorporating time and real movement through the treatment of the space. The work should be an autonomous object, where <In his Desplazamiento de un cuadro transparente he created a spatial effect on a plane surface that latter was developed in a tridimensional way, superimposing two or more Plexiglas sheets, transparent but painted with straight or curved drawings that changed the way they were seen as the spectator moved, inviting the participation of the public. This work was the response to a discovery: the ambiguity of spatial perception
In 1955 Soto participated in the exhibition Le Mouvement, in the Denise René gallery, in Paris. Other artists being shown were Yaacov Agam, Marcel Duchamp and Victor Vasarely. The exhibition prompted the publication of the ‘Yellow Manifest’ about kinetic art and the visual researches involving spectators and stimulus. The kinetic art movement gained force in Europe and Latin-America after this exhibition.
Dematerialization of form
As results of the optical vibratory states that Soto achieves from the superposition of plans, a new situation appears: the outbreak of the solid body, its dematerialization in our retina, phenomena that is produced for the first time in Permutación. In Estructuras cinéticas de elementos geométricos and Armonía transformable is added a new element that was relegated in his research: color. It is about the superposition of different plexiglass planes, where color frames are inscribed, introducing new vibratory elements. The real division of the plane that had previously undergone an unfolding is produced here. Its structure already suggests a true spatial dimension, as a consequence of the equivalence of its obverse and its reverse. The situation becomes more complex, due to the multiplication of different lines, colors and directions. Plexiglass, medium that had provided the possibility of conforming aleatory states, begins to be an impediment and the search for a new way of materializing vibration starts.The conformation of a new visual order
To the preoccupation of searching for a new way of materializing the vibratory states is added the concern to approach human scale, integrating Soto's works to architecture. This is how in Estructura Cinética the frames that had been drawn on plexiglass become real elements: metal rods welded between them. Soto's works become real special objects that visitors are able to penetrate.In the 1950s and beginning of the 1960s, starting from his basic concept of matter and space as different manifestations of energy, Soto had already structured the conceptual platform of his plastic language. Works like Escritura and Muro de Bruselas, both from 1958, already contain all the elements that will be developed later.
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Space plenitude
All of Soto's work, from start to end, answers to the same necessity of materialize his concept of the world as an impossible reality to measure in a human scale; vision where are vital the energy and space as essential situations inside nature. To reveal this situations in all of its complex dimension was the impulse that has fed his plastic research.<
Contributions
'Soto would set the bases for an art that transcended the conventional parameters of painting and sculpture.' By inviting the spectator participate in the work, instead of merely looking from a distance, Soto more deeply engages the audience, and makes the experience more intriguing and stimulating. Soto had a partner in this movement. On the other hand, his counterpart Carlos Cruz-Diez focused more on the way colours are perceived by the eye. One of his series called Fisicromias shows how coloured light is perceived and displaced through one's eyes. Another artist that participated in this style was Alejandro Otero. His series Colortions combine the same concepts of the perception of colour in the eye and participators' movement with the work, but gave greater attention to how the colours are controlled with vertical lines.Jesús Rafael Soto died in 2005 in Paris, and is buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse.
Impact
Like many other Venezuelan artists from this time, Jesus Rafael Soto and Carlos Cruz-Diez considered their works a response to what they felt the problems were in art of their time. They wanted to express a more universal process of art. Because of this, their works are contributions that continue to enrich the art world. Their willingness to contribute and put themselves in a more universal approach to art, was a direct rebuttal to the traditional views of art in Latin America. With Venezuela, this was a way for them to add what they felt was missing in the art of Latin America.Painting, in history was an act of responding to the situation at hand in the mind of Soto and Cruz-Diez. "Everything else was academic, an- achronistic, or as Alejandro Otero said, "the work of a man hiding behind time."
Collections
In 1973, the Jesús Soto Museum of Modern Art opened in Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela with a collection of his work. Venezuelan architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva designed the building for the museum and Italian op artist Getulio Alviani was called to run it. Something that is different about this gallerie is that a large number of the exhibits are wired to the electricity supply so that they can move.| Argentina | Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires |
| Australia | National Gallery of Australia, Canberra |
| Australia | National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne |
| Belgium | Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels |
| Belgium | Musée de Sculpture en Plein Air, Middelheim |
| Brazil | Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo |
| Canada | Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal |
| Chile | Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Santiago |
| Colombia | Museo de Arte Moderno La Tertulia, Cali |
| Cuba | Casa de las Américas, La Havana |
| Denmark | Louisiana, Humlebaek |
| Egypt | Universal Graphic Museum, Giza |
| Finland | The Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki |
| France | Le Musée Martiniquais des Arts des Amériques- M2A2, Le Lamentin |
| France | Musée d'Art Contemporain, Lyon |
| France | Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes |
| France | Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris |
| France | Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris |
| France | Fonds Départemental d'Art Contemporain, Val-de-Marne |
| France | Musée des Beaux-Arts, Pau |
| Germany | Josef Albers Museum, Quadrat, Bottrop |
| Germany | Museum Ludwig, Cologne |
| Germany | Sprengel Museum Hannover, Hanover |
| Germany | Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld |
| Germany | Museum Wurth, Kunzelsau |
| Germany | Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen |
| Germany | Sammlung Lenz Schönberg, Munich |
| Germany | Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart |
| Germany | Ulmer Museum, Ulm |
| Israel | The Israel Museum, Jerusalem |
| Israel | Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv |
| Italy | Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Milan |
| Italy | Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Roma |
| Italy | Fondazione Il Giardino di Daniel Spoerri, Seggiano |
| Italy | Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin |
| Italy | Fondazione Calderara, Vacciago di Ameno |
| Japan | Fukuoka Art Museum |
| Japan | Museum of Modern Art, Hokkaido |
| Japan | Itami City Art Museum, Itami |
| Japan | The Iwaki City Museum, Iwaki |
| Japan | Museum of Modern Art, Saitama |
| Japan | Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo |
| Japan | Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama |
| Mexico | Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico. |
| Nicaragua | Museo de Arte Latino Americano Contemporáneo de Managua |
| Netherlands | Mondriaanhuis, Amersfoort |
| Netherlands | Peter Stuyvesant Foundation, Amsterdam |
| Netherlands | Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam |
| Netherlands | Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo |
| Netherlands | Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam |
| New Zealand | Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland |
| Roumania | Muezul de Arta Universala Burcuresti, Bucarest |
| South Korea | Ho-Am Art Museum, Seoul |
| South Korea | National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul |
| South Korea | Tongyoung Nammang Open Air Sculpture Park,Tongyoung City |
| Spain | Museo Luis González Robles, Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares |
| Spain | Museo de La Asegurada, Alicante |
| Spain | Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid |
| Spain | Fundación ARCO, Madrid |
| Spain | Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas, Grande Canarie |
| Spain | Fundación César Manrique, Teguise, Lanzarote |
| Sweden | Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmö |
| Sweden | Moderna Museet, Stockholm |
| Switzerland | Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel |
| Switzerland | Kunstmuseum, Berne |
| United Kingdom | Tate Gallery, London |
| U.S.A. | Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida |
| U.S.A. | Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo |
| U.S.A. | Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase |
| U.S.A. | The Museum of Modern Art, New York |
| U.S.A. | Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York |
| U.S.A. | Oklahoma City Art Museum, Oklahoma City, |
| U.S.A. | Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, Austin, |
| U.S.A. | Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. |
| Venezuela | Fundación Galería de Arte Nacional, Caracas |
| Venezuela | Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas Sofía Imber, Caracas |
| Venezuela | Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas |
| Venezuela | Museo de Arte Moderno - Fundación Jesús Soto, Ciudad Bolívar |
| Venezuela | Museo de Arte Moderno de Mérida Juan Astorga Anta, Mérida |
Environmental Integrations
- 1957: "Structure cinétique", Ciudad Universitaria, Caracas, Venezuela
- 1958: "Wall of Brussels", I.V.I.C., Caracas, Venezuela. "Tour de Bruxelles", I.V.I.C., Caracas, Venezuela.
- 1967: "Volume suspendu", Expo 67, Pavililon of Venezuela, Montreal, Canada.
- 1968-69:
Ephemeral Environment made for the end year festivities, Place Furstenberg, Paris, France. - 1969: "Mur cinétique", UNESCO, Paris, France. "Progresión a centro móvil", Torre Capriles, Caracas, Venezuela. "Paralelas vibrantes", Torre Capriles, Caracas, Venezuela. "Volumen cinético", Torre Capriles, Caracas, Venezuela.
- 1970: Hall, Deutsche Bundesbank, Francfort, Germany. "Extension et progression dans l'eau", Rethel college, The Ardennes, France. Hall, Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie, Rennes, France.
- 1971: "Vibración amarilla", I.V.I.C., Caracas, Venezuela.
- 1972: Hall, pharmaceutical Laboratory Sandoz, Basle, Switzerland.
- 1972-82: Complejo Cultural Teresa Carreño, Caracas, Venezuela.
- 1973: "El gran mural de las escrituras", Banco Central de Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela. "Extension et progression dans l'eau", Paseo Ciencias, Maracaibo, V enezuela.
- 1973-95: "Penetrable", Parque García Sanabría, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.
- 1974: "Mur cinétique", International duOffice for Work, Geneva, Switzerland.
- 1975: Hall and restaurant of the personnel, Régie Renault, Boulogne- Billancourt, France. "Progression", CES, Moreuil, France.
- 1977: "Suspended Virtual Volume", Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto, Canada. "Mural Cavendes", Edificio Cavendes, Caracas, Venezuela.
- 1979: "Environnement", Reception, Cars-Motors, Caracas, Venezuela. "Gran escritura negra", Banco de Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela. "Volumen virtual suspendido", Centro Banaven, Caracas, Venezuela. "Interférences vibrantes", West Deutsche Landesbank, Dortmund, Germany.
- 1982: "Progresión suspendida amarilla y blanca", Entidad de Ahorro y Préstamo, Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela.
- 1983: "Progresión amarilla", Metro Chacaíto, Caracas, Venezuela. "Cubo virtual azul y negro", Metro Chacaíto, Caracas, Venezuela.
- 1984: "Extensión azul y blanca", Seguros La Seguridad, Caracas, Venezuela. "Volumen virtual polícromo", Deutsche Eisenbahn Versicherung, Cologne, Germany.
- 1985: "Esfera Japón", Edificio Banco Lara, Caracas, Venezuela.
- 1987: "Cubo Meneven", Edificio Corpoven, Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela.
- 1988: "Ovoide Polar", Fundación Polar, Caracas, Venezuela. "Cubo Provincial", Banco Provincial, Caracas, Venezuela. "Mur Polychrome", CFDT, Paris, France. "Ecriture", CFDT, Paris, France. "Large Sphere of Seoul", Olympic Park, Seoul, South Korea. "Media esfera roja", Seguros La Seguridad, Caracas, Venezuela. "Cubo virtual", Torre Banco Provincial, Caracas, Venezuela.
- 1992: "Media esfera azul y verde", Seville, Spain.
- 1993: "Dos cubos virtuales", Darier Hentsch & Cie., Geneva, Switzerland.
- 1993-94: "Cubo de Francia", Ambassade de France, Caracas, Venezuela.
- 1995: "Welcoming Flag", Dowa Fire & Marine Insurance Company Phoenix Tower, Osaka, Japan.
- 1989-1995: "Volume virtuel Air France", Air France Head Office, Roissy, France.
- 1997: Integration of four artworks, Hall, KPMG, La Défense, France. "Cube noir Penetrable", Fondazione Il Giardino di Daniel Spoerri, Seggiano, Italy. "Sphère bleue", Samsung Plaza, Gare de Suhyun, South Korea. "Penetrable of Tongyoung", Tongyoung Nammang Open Air Sculpture Park, Korea. "Virtual Ellipsoids", Dresdner Bank Head Office, Berlin, Germany. "Esfera de Caracas", motorway Francisco Fajardo, Caracas, Venezuela.
- 1998-99: "La esfera de Margarita", Porlamar, Margarita Island, Venezuela.
- 2001: "Large ovale", new Chinese Petroleum Corporation Head Office, Taipei, Taiwan.
Individual exhibitions