PARIS.- A major protagonist of contemporary art, all-round and social artist, and pioneer of kinetic art, Carlos Cruz-Diez is an undisputed master of colour. Throughout his career, he experimented with and developed a large number of researches that remain emblematic of his artistic language.
Carlos Cruz-Diez defined himself first and foremost as a painter, listening to the profound societal changes happening around him, in Venezuela and in the world. From the beginning, he was interested in the invention of a new work, requiring the constant search for unconventional techniques and technologies, which would come to play a key role in his approach. From 1994, this placed him in the avant-garde of the digital revolution that would follow, allowing the public to create unique, computer-assisted works from his characteristic palette.
He figures among the most prolific artists of his time in the urban space. His works are designed to reach a large audience and to be part of everyday life. As a result, several hundred of his creations can be found scattered across the globe, occupying spaces that have since become iconic such as Caracas airport in Venezuela, or Place du Venezuela in Paris. In France, they are an integral part of the cultural heritage of cities like Clermont-Ferrand, Cambrai, Villetaneuse or La Roche-sur-Yon. Even today, his works lend a special glow to the façades of Prada stores in Asia, part of an homage paid to him by the brand.
His research and his writings make Carlos Cruz-Diez the last great thinker of the twentieth century in the realm of colour. His work has revealed a new understanding of chromatic phenomena in art, expanding its perceptual universe considerably. Cruz-Diez proposes colour as an autonomous and evolutive reality where the implication of our senses reveals chromatic events as they develop. Events that take place in space and time, without anecdotes or references, stripped of any symbols, past or future, in a continuous present. Works by Carlos Cruz-Diez encourage a different knowledge relationship, where the viewers can discover their capacity to create and destroy colour with their own perceptual means while finding an emotional resonance through their personal experience.
Carlos Cruz-Diez describes himself as an artist applying the discipline of a scientist “because the supports that I have managed to structure are a source of surprise and imponderables… In my works, nothing is left to chance; everything is intended, planned, and programmed. Liberty and emotions are only present when choosing colours, a task with only one self-imposed restriction: to be efficient in what I want to say. It is a combination of both rationale and emotion. I don’t get inspired: I reflect.”
His works are in the permanent collections of prestigious institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Tate Modern, London; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne; Geffen Contemporary, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk.
Galleria Continua will present iconic but also unpublished works of Carlos Cruz-Diez in the upcoming highlights of international contemporary art: Frieze Masters in London (12-16 October) and Paris+ par Art Basel (20-23 October) – including in particular a monumental work never before shown to the public as part of the “hors-les-murs” circuit in the Jardin des Tuileries.
