Jesús Rafael Soto (June 5, 1923 – January 14, 2005) was a Venezuelan kinetic and op artist, a sculptor and a painter. His works can be found in the collections of the main museums of the world, including

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

(London),

Museum Ludwig Museum Ludwig, located in Cologne, Germany, houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from Pop Art, Abstract and Surrealism, and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It holds many works by Andy Warhol and Roy Lic ...

(Germany),

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

(Paris), (Roma) and

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

(New York). 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 Ciudad Bolívar (; Spanish for "Bolivar City"), formerly known as Angostura and St. Thomas de Guyana, is the capital of Venezuela's southeastern Bolívar, Venezuela, Bolívar State. It lies at the spot where the Orinoco River narrows to about ...

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 Bolívar. "''At that age - says the artist -, the only artists that I knew were the lettering painters. My family was very happy. I could earn some money, make lettering till the end of my days. Nobody looked further than that...''" 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. "''I drew heads, portraits, I had a great technique. Finally, there were people that made a petition, the bishop asked to see it and he signed it. I got a scholarship…''"

Education

In 1942 he received a scholarship to study artistic training at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Artes Aplicadas (Plastic and Applied Arts School) in Caracas, finishing his studies in 1947.Jesus Rafael Soto

Marlborough Fine Art Marlborough Fine Art was founded in London in 1946 by Frank Lloyd and Harry Fischer. In 1963, a gallery was opened as Marlborough-Gerson in Manhattan, New York, at the Fuller Building on Madison Avenue and 57th Street, which later relocated in ...

. 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 (Omar Carreño,

Carlos Cruz-Diez Carlos Cruz-Diez (17 August 1923 – 27 July 2019) was a Venezuelan artist said by some scholars to have been "one of the greatest artistic innovators of the 20th century." Career In 2020, the Pérez Art Museum Miami acquired ''Chromosatura ...

, Narsico Deboug, Dora Hersen,

Mateo Manaure Mateo Manaure (18 October 1926 – 19 March 2018) was a Venezuelan modern artist. In Venezuela he is considered a master of abstractionism, and is known for his works in the University City of Caracas and for creating the largest glass mural in th ...

, Luis Guevara, Pascual Navarro,

Mercedes Pardo Mercedes Clementina Marta del Carmen Pardo Ponte, known as Mercedes Pardo (July 29, 1921 – March 24, 2005) was a Venezuelan abstract art painter. Biography Pardo was born July 29, 1921 (or July 20, 1921, according to her obituary in ''El País ...

and

Alejandro Otero Alejandro Otero (El Manteco, Bolívar, March 7, 1921 — Caracas, August 13, 1990) was a Venezuelan painter of Geometric abstraction, a sculptor, a writer and a cultural promoter. He was a founding member of the Los Disidentes group. Early ...

) since he often brought inspirations from foreign countries to his students, including the latest from the avant-garde:

cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...

. "''When I got in the Fine Arts School - says Soto -, the first thing I saw was the reproduction of a dead nature of

Braque Georges Braque ( ; ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century French painter, collagist, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his alliance with Fauvism from 1905, and the role he play ...

''". This image caused such impact on him because "''...the color started to separate off the form''" and because of the multiplicity of the viewing points that he wanted to represent. For Soto, this was the starting point.

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 Maracaibo ( , ; ) is a city and municipality in northwestern Venezuela, on the western shore of the strait that connects Lake Maracaibo to the Gulf of Venezuela. It is the largest city in Venezuela and is List of cities in Venezuela by population ...

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 Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...

and

Piet Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), known after 1911 as Piet Mondrian (, , ), was a Dutch Painting, painter and Theory of art, art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He w ...

’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 Yaacov Agam (; born 11 May 1928) is an Israeli sculptor and experimental artist widely known for his contributions to optical and kinetic art. Early life, family and education Yaacov Gibstein (later Agam) was born in Mandate Palestine. His fat ...

Jean Tinguely Jean Tinguely (22 May 1925 – 30 August 1991) was a Swiss sculptor best known for his kinetic art sculptural machines (known officially as Métamatics) that extended the Dada tradition into the later part of the 20th century.Chilvers, Ian; Gl ...

Victor Vasarely Victor Vasarely (; born Győző Vásárhelyi, ; 9 April 1906 – 15 March 1997) was a Hungarian-French artist, who is widely accepted as a "grandfather" and leader of the Op art movement. His work titled ''Zebra'', created in 1937, i ...

, and other artists connected with the ''

Salon des Réalités Nouvelles The Salon des Réalités Nouvelles is an association of artists and an art exhibition in Paris, focusing on abstract art. A first exhibition with the name was held in 1939 in Galerie Charpentier, organised by Robert Delaunay, Sonia Delaunay, Nell ...

'' and the ''Galerie Denise René.''

Career

In the beginning, Soto painted

post-impressionist Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...

works, latter getting interested in Cubism. After getting in touch with

Malevich Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (

Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), known after 1911 as Piet Mondrian (, , ), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He was one of the pioneers o ...

and the constructivists, Soto started to experiment with optical phenomena and

op art Op art, short for optical art, is a style of visual art that uses distorted or manipulated geometrical patterns, often to create optical illusions. It began in the early 20th century, and was especially popular from the 1960s on, the term "Op ...

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 "real" situations were put into play, and not a plan where a determinate vision was projected. At the same time that the spectator was moving in front of the work of art, to obtain from it its optical vibrational effects, time and real movement were being incorporated. In his ''Dos cuadrados en el espacio'' (1953), Soto began a series retaking the approaches of

Malevich Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (

, specially about adopting the square as the "only valid form". In his ''Desplazamiento de un cuadro transparente'' (1953–54) 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

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...

and

. The exhibition prompted the publication of the ‘Yellow Manifest’ about

kinetic art Kinetic art is art from any medium that contains movement perceivable by the viewer or that depends on motion for its effects. Canvas paintings that extend the viewer's perspective of the artwork and incorporate multidimensional movement are ...

and the visual researches involving spectators and stimulus. The

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'' (1956). In ''Estructuras cinéticas de elementos geométricos'' (1955-57) and ''Armonía transformable'' (1956) 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. Mural de Bruselas - Soto MBA

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'' (1957) 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. "''My work of art - as Soto says -, is totally abstract. It was born from a reflection about painting and the propositions of our biggest (artists). I don't copy nature, I isolate fundamental properties of the reality. For me, works are, before all, signs, no matter. It would be wrong to see in the work that is in front of you the object of my art, it isn't there if not as a witness, sign of another thing...''" Soto Museum 3

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. "''When you enter a penetrable, you have the sensation of being in a light swirl, a total plenitude of vibrations. The Penetrable is a kind of concretization of this plenitude in which I make people move and make them feel the body of space. Is a way of materializing what exist, is an immaterial state, one state that for me isn't irreal, but a reality. Reality exists all over the place and fill all the universe. Emptiness doesn't exist, anywhere. This is my basic line of thought.''"

Contributions

'Soto would set the bases for an art that transcended the conventional parameters of painting and sculpture.' By inviting the spectator to 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

focused more on the way colours are perceived by the eye. One of his series called ''Fisicromias'' (Physiochromies) shows how coloured light is perceived and displaced through one's eyes. Another artist that participated in this style was

. His series ''Colortions'' (Rhythmicolors) 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 Montparnasse Cemetery () is a cemetery in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, in the city's 14th arrondissement. The cemetery is roughly 47 acres and is the second largest cemetery in Paris. The cemetery has over 35,000 graves, and approximately 1 ...

Impact

Like many other Venezuelan artists from this time, Jesus Rafael Soto and

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, anachronistic, or as Alejandro Otero said, "the work of a man hiding behind time.''""

Collections

In 1973, the

Jesús Soto Museum of Modern Art The Jesús Soto Museum of Modern Art (Spanish: ''Museo de Arte Moderno Jesús Soto'') is a museum of modern art in Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela. It is named after the kinetic artist and sculptor Jesús Rafael Soto, who was born in Ciudad Bolívar ...

opened in

, Venezuela with a collection of his work. Venezuelan architect

Carlos Raúl Villanueva Carlos Raúl Villanueva Astoul (May 30, 1900 – August 16, 1975) was a Venezuelan Modern architecture, modernist architect. Raised in Europe, Villanueva went for the first time to Venezuela when he was 28 years old. He was involved in the dev ...

designed the building for the museum and Italian op artist

Getulio Alviani Getulio Alviani (5 September 1939 in Udine – 24 February 2018 in Milan) was an Italian painting, painter based in Milan. He is considered to be an important International Op Art, Optical - Kinetic art, kinetic artist. Life and work Alviani w ...

was called to run it. Something that is different about this gallery is that a large number of the exhibits are wired to the electricity supply so that they can move.

Environmental integrations

* 1957: "Structure cinétique", Ciudad Universitaria, Caracas, Venezuela * 1958: "Wall of Brussels", I.V.I.C., Caracas, Venezuela (made for Universal Exhibition of Brussels, 1958). "Tour de Bruxelles", I.V.I.C., Caracas, Venezuela (made for Universal Exhibition of Brussels, 1958). * 1967: "Volume suspendu", Expo 67, Pavililon of Venezuela, Montreal, Canada (ephemeral environment in the pavilion made by architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva for intégration of Soto's monumental artwork, Universal Exhibition in Montréal, 1967). * 1968-69: '' Ephemeral Environment'' made for the end year festivities, Place Furstenberg, Paris, France. * 1969: "Mur cinétique" (2), 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, Venezuela. * 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 (college), 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 (made for Olympiade of Arts during Olympic Games in Seoul, 1988). "Media esfera roja", Seguros La Seguridad, Caracas, Venezuela. "Cubo virtual", Torre Banco Provincial, Caracas, Venezuela. * 1992: " Media esfera azul y Verde''", Seville, Spain (made for Universal Exhibition in Seville, 1992). * 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 virtual Air France", Air France Head Office, Roissy, France. * 1997: Integration of four artworks, Hall, KPMG, La Défense (Paris), France. "Cube noir Penetrable", Fondazione Il Giardino di Daniel Spoerri, Seggiano (Grosseto), Italy. "Sphère bleue", Samsung Plaza, Gare de Suhyun (Megaport of Bundang), South Korea. " Penetrable of Tongyoung", Tongyoung Nammang Open Air Sculpture Park, Korea (1997). " 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 oval''", new Chinese Petroleum Corporation Head Office, Taipei, Taiwan.

Individual exhibitions

Prizes

Bibliography

* Abadie, Daniel. Entrevista para el catálogo de la Exposición Soto: cuarenta años de creación, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas, 1983 * Abadie, Daniel; Gómez, Hannia; Nordmann, Agnés and Pierre, Arnaud. Soto A Gran Escala. Published by MACCSI. * Boulton, Alfredo. Jesús Soto. Editorial Armitano, 1973 * Brodsky, Estrellita and Rich, Sarah. Soto: Paris and Beyond, 1950-1970. New York University, 2012. * Clay, Jean. Rostros del Arte Moderno. Monte Avila Editores, Caracas, 1971 * Cuevas, Tatiana, Obrist, Hans Ulrich, Santoscoy, Paola. Jesús Rafael Soto. "Visión en Movimiento", 2007. * Hernández D’Jesus, Enrique. Entrevista publicada em el suplemento especial del Diario de Caracas, 1993 * Huerta, Ninoska. Soto Classical and Modern. Fundación Corp Group Centro Cultural, Caracas, 2000. * Jiménez, Ariel. Texto para el catálogo de la exposición retrospectiva de Jesús Soto. Francia, Abbaye Saint André Centre d’Art Contemporain Meymac. 1992 * Jiménez, Ariel. Texto para el catálogo de la exposición SOTO: Re-pensar lo visible, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Maracay Mario Abreu, 1993 * Jiménez, Ariel. Jesús Soto in Conversation with Ariel Jiménez. Fundación Cisneros/Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros * Joray, Marcel and Sot,o Jesús Rafael. Soto. Éditions du Griffon, Paris, 1984. ASIN: B0018PFZBK * Lemaire, Gerard-Georges. Soto (Serie Mains et merveilles). Editions La Difference, Paris, 1997 * Messer, Thomas M., Renard, Claude-Louis, Soto, Jesús. Soto: A Retrospective Exhibition, catalogue published to coincide with the exhibition. Accompanying text in English, French and Spanish, Published by: The Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1974.

References

External links

Artist's official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soto, Jesus 1923 births 2005 deaths People from Ciudad Bolívar 20th-century Venezuelan sculptors 20th-century Venezuelan male artists Male sculptors Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery Venezuelan contemporary artists