Leon Tovar Gallery recently announced its latest solo show Dans son jus. Highlighting the works by Jesús Rafael Soto, the opening night party was well received. Dans son jus showcases a range of the artist’s talent, allowing the viewer to travel with the artist along a creative journey that defined the Kinetic Art Movement.
Jesús Rafael Soto was a Venezuelan sculptor and installation artist associated with the Kinetic Art movement. Born in Ciudad Bolivar in 1923, he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Caracas and later moved to Paris, where he joined a group of abstract artists known as the Salon des Realités Nouvelles. Yet it wasn’t until 1955, when he created his first dynamic works by superimposing drawings made on Plexiglass. During the 1960s, he continued to incorporate three—dimensional elements in several works and then in 1968, he began developing the Penetrables series — works made from flexible nylon threads that vibrate as the viewer approaches them. One of the more recent works of this series, “Cube Penetrable” (1996), creates the illusion of volume and movement through painted metal rods. Soto used color theory to create ground breaking optical effects; he is regarded as a key figure of the Paris avant-garde and innovator of the Kinetic movement. Several museum collections, including the Tate Modern in London, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Museo de Arte Moderno Jesus Soto in Bolívar, Venezuela, have featured Soto’s work.
Video: Jesús Rafael Soto, Cubo y Extension, 1971
