biography

Carlos Cruz-Diez, Caracas, Venezuela, 1923

  

 

Considered one of the major exponents of contemporary art in our time; has lived and worked

in Paris since 1960.  

 

His roots go back to the Kinetic Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. He describes his enquiries

and proposals as "Arte del Movimiento y Espacio Reales" [Art of Real Movement and Space].

His visual art has expanded the accepted idea of color, showing that perception of a chromatic

phenomenon does not rely on form.  

 

Cruz-Diez explored color in 8 series: "Couleur Additive" [Additive Color], "Physichromie", "Induction

Chromatique" [Chromatic Induction], "Chromointerférence", "Transchromie", "Chromosaturation",

"Chromoscope", and "Couleur dans l’espace" [Color in Space]. Each one takes a different approach

to how color behaves.

 

His work shows that when color interacts with the viewer it becomes an autonomous reality that can

be launched into space, sans anecdotes or symbols, evolving on its own with no need of form or

even support.  

 

He describes himself as an artist who is also a researcher: "There is nothing random about my work;

everything is thought out, programmed, and coded. Freedom and emotions are only involved when

combining colors, a task that is required to live up to a particular standard: it must do a good job of

expressing what I am trying to say. It is a blending of reason and the emotions. I do not get inspired;

I think."

 

 

 

Cruz-Diez’s works are part of the permanent collections at institutions such as:

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York;

Tate Modern, London;

Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris;

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston;

Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne;

and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de París, Paris, among others.

 

 

The following is a partial list of his solo and collective exhibitions:

 

"Le Mouvement", Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Low Countries, 1961;

"Mouvement 2", Galerie Denise René, Paris, France, 1964;

"The Responsive Eye", Museum of Modern Art, New York, United States, 1965;

"Lumière et Mouvement" [Light and Movement], Musée d' Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France, 1967;

"Cruz-Diez: Cinq propositions sur la couleur" [Cruz-Diez: Five Proposals on Color], Galerie Denise René, Paris, France, 1969;

Pabellón de Venezuela, XXXV Biennale di Venetia [Venezuelan Pavilion, 35th Venice Biennial], Venice, Italy, 1970;

"Retrospective", Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Caracas, Venezuela, 1981;

"Carlos Cruz-Diez Autonomie der Farbe" [The Autonomy of Color], Josef Albers Museum, Bottrop, Germany, 1988;

"Une Tour Eiffel haute en Couleurs" [A Colorful Eiffel Tower], Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, 2003;

"Inverted Utopias: Avant-Garde Art in Latin America", Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, United States, 2004;

"Lo(s) Cinético(s)" [The Kinetic(s)], Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain, 2007;

"In(formed) by Color", The Americas Society, New York, United States, 2008;

"El Color Sucede" [Color Happens], Museu d’Art Espanyol Contemporani, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 2009;

"Carlos Cruz-Diez, El Color sucede" [Color Happens], Museo de Arte Abstracto Español, Cuenca, Spain, 2009;

"Carlos Cruz Diez: The Embodied Experience of Color", Miami Art Museum, Miami, United States, 2010;

"Carlos Cruz-Diez: Color in Space and Time", The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, United States, 2011;

"Environment Chromatic-Interferences: Interactive Space by Carlos Cruz-Diez", Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China, 2010;

"Carlos Cruz-Diez : A cor no espaço e no tempo" [Color in Space and Time], Pinacoteca del estado de Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2012.  

 

Books by the author  

Cruz-Diez, Reflexion sobre el color, Caracas 1989

2ª Edición: Ediciones Fundación Juan March, Madrid, 2009