Kinetica Artfair
Carlos Cruz Diez
Carlos Cruz Diez
Carlos Cruz-D : b. 1923
Cruz-D studied at the Escuela de Artes Plicas y Aplicadas in Caracas between 1940-45. He visited Paris and Barcelona In 1955-56, where he was exposed to art movements such as the Bauhaus and geometric abstractionists whose ideas combined art and industry.
Cruz-D is a pioneer in colour and perception, his work presents geometric abstracted forms using a moire effect with a strong emphasis on colour to create a visual experience. He relies on the movement of the viewer rather than the movement of the art work itself. As the viewer changes position, the image of the work changes; he refers to this changing effect as vibrations. The individual images presented were considered events. These were terms used by the Fluxus group, who were also internationally based, and working around the same time, the late fifties and early sixties.
In 1959 Cruz-D started working with coloured light, which is a form of wavelengths, and abandoned paint as a medium.
Throughout his career Cruz-D has focused on four types of self-defined Op (Operational) Art Categories: Physichoromies, Choromointerferences, Chromosaturations, and Transchromies. All of his colour-based experiments focus on variations of the observers position in relation to the work, the light directed at the work, and the relationship between the colours presented. He also created sensory deconditioning rooms, which provided an experience that included visual, sound and tactile experiences, a total phrenological experience. He is represented in museums internationally.
In 1997, the Carlos Cruz-D Print and Design Museum in Caracas, Venezuela, opened. The museum offers education and resources to the general public and supports contemporary Venezuelan artists. The museum strives to create a graphic image of the country.
Throughout his artistic career Cruz-D has played an active role in teaching Kinetic techniques at Art colleges in both Caracas and in Paris. From 1986 to 1993 he was the Titular Professor and Director of the Art Unit of the Institute of Advanced Studies (IDEA), Caracas.
Kindly loaned by Carlos Cruz Diez.
www.cruz-diez.com
