Jesús Rafael Soto

Soto painted striped patterns on two sheets of plexiglass and partially superimposed them so that the composition seems to flicker as you move in front of it. The artist used this optical effect as a way of emphasizing the immaterial and impermanent. “I have never sought to show reality caught at one precise moment,” he explained. “The universe, I believe, is uncertain and unsettled. The same must be true of my work.”

“I really started out with the desire to make the work of Mondrian move,” explained Soto, who had traveled to Holland to see firsthand the work of the Dutch artist. Mondrian’s paintings such as Broadway Boogie-Woogie inspired Soto to animate abstraction by optical means. Using transparent sheets of Plexiglas, he was able to superimpose colorful striations that seem to flicker as the viewer moves. Activating the work through the beholder’s motion became a core principle of Soto’s practice, which over time staged even more complex and immersive bodily encounters.

The artist.
? - 1989, Lya and Fernando Ruben Coronil, Caracas.
1989 - 2016, Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York, and Caracas, purchased from Lya Imber de Coronil and Fernando Ruben Coronil.
2016, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired as promised gift from Patricia Phelps de Cisneros.