Jesús-Rafael SOTO

Biography

Jesús-Rafael Soto was born on June 5, 1923 in Ciudad Bolivar in Venezuela.

Soto was a painter of letters and movie posters. He obtained a scholarship, followed the Fine Arts in Caracas and went to teach in Maracaibo.

In 1950 He moved to Paris. He attends conferences at the abstract art workshop founded by Jean Dewasne and Edgard Pillet.

In 1952, he collaborated with Alejandro Otero, Alexander Calder, Fernand Léger, Antoine Pevsner, Henri Laurens, Hans Arp, and others in the Proyecto de Integración de las Artes at the Central University of Venezuela, directed by the architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva; the project was designed to integrate architecture with the art of avant-garde modernists.

In 1955, he participated in the exhibition "Le Mouvement" at the Galerie Denise René. During this time he explores the perceptual problems of the abstract-constructivist system, with ideas to which contribute Victor Vasarely, Yaacov Agam, Jean Tinguely, and Julio Le Parc; his exploration deepens and increases when he becomes familiar with the work of Marcel Duchamp. He developed a kinetic vocabulary originally in mass production that produced optical vibrations: these, in turn, modify the space and perception of the viewer.

An emblematic artist of the Op Art / Kinetic Art movements, Soto notably explored the question of the spectator's involvement in the work with his “Pénétrables”. His objects are virtual volumes installed in space that seem to interact with their environments (nature, urban space, etc.)

In 1995 Soto received the National Grand Prize for Sculpture in France.

His work has been exhibited all over the world and can be found in the lobby of the Unesco building in Paris (1969), the Bank of Toronto (1977) and in the forum of the Pompidou center in Paris (1987).

He died in Paris on January 14, 2005.