Franco-Venezuelan artist born in Caracas in 1923, Carlos Cruz-Diez lives and works in Paris since 1960. He is a major protagonist in the field of Kinetic and Optical art, a movement that encourages “an awareness of the instability of reality.” His body of work has established him as one of the key twentieth-century thinkers in the realm of color.
His research, based on three color conditions: subtractive, additive and reflective has contributed to a new way of understanding the color phenomenon in art, greatly expanding its perceptual universe.
In his works he shows that color, in interaction with the viewer, becomes an autonomous, evolving reality, devoid of anecdotes, which evolves in real time and space.
His work includes several research he has called Couleur Additive, Physichromie, Induction Chromatique, Chromointerférence, Transchromie, Chromosaturation and Couleur dans l'espace.
His artworks are housed in prestigious permanent collections at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Modern in London, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne and the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
His solo and group exhibitions include: Bewogen Beweging, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1961; Mouvement 2, Galerie Denise René, Paris, France, 1964; The Responsive Eye, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA, 1965; Lumière et Mouvement, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France, 1967; Cruz-Diez: Cinq propositions sur la couleur, Galerie Denise René, Paris, France, 1969; Venezuela Pavilion, XXXV Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy, 1970; Carlos Cruz-Diez: Die Autonomie der Farbe, Josef Albers Museum, Bottrop, Germany, 1988; Une Tour Eiffel haute en couleurs, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, 2003; Inverted Utopias: Avant-garde Art in Latin America, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA, 2004; Lo(s) cinético(s), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain, 2007; In(Formed) by Color, The Americas Society, New York, USA, 2008; Carlos Cruz-Diez: Color Happens, Espanyol Contemporani Museu d'Art, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 2009; Environment Chromatic-Interferences: Interactive Space by Carlos Cruz-Diez, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China, 2010; Carlos Cruz Diez: The Embodied Experience of Color, Miami Art Museum, Miami, USA, 2010; El color: una circunstancia espacial y temporal, Marion Gallery, Panama City, Panama, 2010; Carlos Cruz-Diez: Color in Space and Time, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA, 2011; Carlos Cruz-Diez: A cor no espaço e no tempo, Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo, Brazil, 2012; Carlos Cruz-Diez: Color in space and time, Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo - MUAC, Mexico, DF, Mexico, 2012; Light Show, Hayward Gallery, London, UK, 2013; Concrete Invention: Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain, 2013; among other.
