ABOUT THE ARTIST
Carlos Cruz-Diez (Caracas, Venezuela, 1923 - París, Francia, 2019) was one of the most prominent figures in kinetic art. His work was based on the revaluation of color as an experience in itself, as a luminous phenomenon whose implications go beyond interpretation or cultural background. His art invites awareness of how perceptual relationships constitute the aesthetic and how each context leads to a different approach to the same piece.
His research positioned him as one of the key thinkers of the 20th century in the realm of color. He significantly contributed to rethinking the relationships between artist, viewer, and art, framing them in a participatory process based exclusively on the use of color. In 1959, Cruz-Diez began a series called Physichromie, through which he realized the idea of chromatic autonomy and its impact on the viewer's environment. One of the outcomes was an important body of work that, in subsequent decades, transcended the boundaries of painting and ventured into the modification of various spaces through the manipulation of color.
His work emphasizes participation and interaction, spatial perception, and movement as key elements for the artistic experience.
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.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Environnement Chromointerférent, Galería RGR, Mexico City, Mexico
Carlos Cruz-Diez. The Color Itself, Galería Cayón, Manila, Philippines
El color en dos tiempos, Galería de Arte Nacional de Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela
RGB Los colores del Siglo, Museo de la Estampa y del Diseño Carlos Cruz-Diez, Caracas, Venezuela
L’Euforia del Colore, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy
2022
The Euphoria of Colour, Galleria Continua, Dubai, UAE
Chromointerferent Environment, Galleria Continua, Paris, France
Colonne Chromointerférente, Les Jardins des Tuileries, Paris, France
Color and Line in Motion, Galería RGR, Mexico City, Mexico
Chromosaturation, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida, USA
Cruz-Diez: El artista y la ciudad, Photomuseum, Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, Bogotá, Colombia
2021 | The Weight of Form. The Graphic Design of Carlos Cruz-Diez, Center of the Reina Sofía National Art Center Museum, Madrid, Spain
2019
Cruz-Diez. El color haciéndose, MAC Panamá, Panama City, Panama
Semana Cruz-Diez, Centro Cultural Chacao, Caracas, Venezuela
Cruz-Diez: A liberdade da cor, Espaço Cultural Porto Seguro, São Paulo, Brazil
2018
La autonomía del color, Galería RGR, Mexico City, Mexico
Carlos Cruz-Diez. Color Motion, Museum fur Konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt, Germany
2017
Chroma, Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Museum of Art, Georgia, USA
Cruz-Diez en blanco y negro, Alianza Francesa, Panama City, Panama
2016 | Un être flottant : Carlos Cruz-Diez au Palais d’Iéna, Palais de Iéna, Paris, France
2015
Carlos Cruz-Diez. Transfiguration de la couleur, Marlborough Gallery, Monaco
Carlos Cruz-Diez: Didaktik und Dialektik der Farbe, Das Kleine Museum, Weissenstadt, Germany
Cruz-Diez Bidimensional Research. 1959-2015, Espace Expression, Florida, USA
Atrapando el color, Museo de la Estampa y del Diseño Carlos Cruz-Diez, Caracas, Venezuela
2014
Cruz-Diez en blanco y negro. Fotografías 1942-1986, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires (MACBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina
Carlos Cruz-Diez: Circumstance and Ambiguity of Colour, The University Museum and Art Gallery of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Carlos Cruz-Diez. Circonstance et Ambiguïté de la Couleur, Fondation Vasarely, Aix en Provence, France
2013
Carlos Cruz-Diez: Circumstance and Ambiguity of Color, China Academy of Art, Zhejiang, China
Carlos Cruz-Diez: Circumstance and Ambiguity of Color, Shanghai Institute of Visual Art, Shanghai, China
2012
Cruz-Diez. Circumstance and Ambiguity of Color, Ningbo Museum of Art, Zhejiang, China
Carlos Cruz-Diez: Circumstance and Ambiguity of Color, Jiangsu Provincial Art Museum, Nanjing, China
Cruz-Diez: A cor no espaço e no tempo, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Carlos Cruz-Diez. El color en el espacio y en el tiempo, Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Mexico City, Mexico
2011
Carlos Cruz-Diez. Color in Space and Time, The Museum of Fine Arts (MFAH), Texas, USA
Carlos Cruz-Diez. El color en el espacio y en el tiempo, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina
2009 | Carlos Cruz-Diez. El color sucede, Museu d’Art Espanyol Contemporani, Mallorca / Museo de Arte Abstracto, Cuenca, Spain
2008
Carlos Cruz-Diez. La couleur dans l’espace, Centre d’Art Contemporain Frank Popper, Marcigny, France
Carlos Cruz-Diez. (In) Formed by Color, Americas Society’s Art Gallery, New York, USA
2007 | Cruz-Diez. La couleur dans l’espace, Maison de l’Amérique latine, Paris, France
2004 | Cruz-Diez. Couleur Evénement, Galerie Lavignes Bastille, Paris, France
[...] individual exhibitions from 1947
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Mouvement et Lumière, Fondation Villa Datris, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, France
Masters that Changed the City, Coral Gables Museum, Florida, USA
Art in Motion, Springfield Art Museum, Missouri, USA
The Dynamic Eye: Op and Kinetic Art from the Tate Collection, Museum of Art Pudong (MAP), Pudong, China
2022
Mouvement. Hommage à Denise René, Château Bonisson, Rognes, France
[E]motion. Op Art, Kinetic Art and Light Art, Art Forum Würth Capena, Capena, Italy
Cinétique! La esculpture en mouvement, Fondation Villa Datris, Paris, France
Color Intermitente, Museo de Artes Visuales, Utadeo, Bogotá, Colombia
2021 | France Pavilion: Light, Enlightenment, Dubai World Expo 2020, Dubai, UAE
2020
A Graphic Revolution: Prints and Drawings in Latin America, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, USA
ReVisión: Art in the Americas, Denver Art Museum, Denver, USA
Tools for Utopia. Works from the Daros Latin-American Collection, Kunstmuseum Bern & Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland
Chromosaturation MFAH, Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH), Texas, USA
2019
SYN KRONOS, Galería RGR, Mexico City, Mexico
Seven Stations: Selections from MOCA’s Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, California, USA
Sur Moderno: Journeys of Abstraction - The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Gift, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA
2018
The Other Trans-Atlantic. Kinetic and Op Art in Eastern Europe and Latin America 1950s – 1970s, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
Concrete Matters, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Visiones de la tierra / El mundo planeado, Sala de Arte Santander, Madrid, Spain
Contesting Modernity: Informalism in Venezuela, 1955–1975, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Texas, USA
2017
Eye Attack. Op Art en Kinetische Kunst, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Schiedam, Netherlands
The Urge to Create Visions, Centre of Polish Sculpture, Oronsko, Poland
The Other Trans-Atlantic. Kinetic & Op Art in Central & Eastern Europe and Latin America, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland
2016
The Illusive Eye: Op Art and the Americas in the 1960s, El Museo del Barrio, New York, USA
Eye Attack. Op Art and Kinetic Art 1950-1970, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark
Das imaginäre Museum / An Imagined Museum. Works from the Centre Pompidou, Tate and MMK Collections, Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK2), Frankfurt, Germany
Pan American Modernism: Avant-Garde Art in Latin America and the United States, Weatherspoon Art Museum, North Carolina, USA
Destination: Latin America, Neuberger Museum of Art, New York, USA
Un musée imaginé. Trois collections européennes : Centre Pompidou, Tate, MMK, Centre Pompidou, Metz, France
Lightopia, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO), Nuevo León, Mexico
2015
Visual Deception II: Into the Future, Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya, Japan
Libertad de Expresión: The Art Museum of the Americas and Cold War Politics, Art Museum of the Americas, Organization of American States, Washington D.C., USA
Light Show, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
Didáctica y dialéctica del color, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Galería de Arte de la Biblioteca, Caracas, Venezuela
2014
Formes simples, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France
Radical Geometry: Modern Art of South America from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
A Global Exchange. Geometric Abstraction Since 1950s, The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Florida, USA
La línea continua, Blanton Museum of Art, Texas, USA
2013
Circumstance and Ambiguity of Color, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China
Order, Chaos, and the Space Between, Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona, USA
Myth and Materiality: Latin American Art from the Permanent Collection, 1930-1990, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California, USA
Intersections: MoLAA’s Permanent Collection, Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA), California, USA
2012
Suprasensorial. Experiments in Light, Color, and Space, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C., USA
Venezuela en Arts, Centre d’Art Contemporain Frank Popper, Marcigny, France
La abstracción: Un nuevo lenguaje para una nueva sociedad, Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Santiago de Chile, Chile
Intercambio global. Abstracción geométrica desde 1950, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Buenos Aires (MACBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina
Moving is Living, Art Stations Foundation, Poznań, Poland
2011
América fría. La abstracción geométrica en Latinoamérica (1934 - 1973), Fundación Juan March, Madrid, Spain
Ejercicios ópticos, Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela
Color on Color, The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami, USA
2010
Suprasensorial. Experiments in Light, Color and Space, The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), California, USA
Couleur et Géométrie, Actualité de l’Art Construit Européen, Sens, France
Musée national d’art moderne, Collections contemporaines (des années 1960 à nos jours), Musée National d’Art Moderne Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
2009 North Looks South. Building the Latin American Art Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Texas, USA 2008
Latin American and Caribbean Art: Selected Highlights from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York State Museum, New York, USA
2007
Lo[s] Cinético[s], Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
The Geometry of Hope. Latin American Abstract Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, Blanton Museum of Art, Texas, USA
Optic Nerve: Perceptual Art of the 1960s, Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, USA Op Art, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
2006 | La utopía cinética. 1955-1975, Centro Cultural “Sa Nostra”, Mallorca, Spain
2005 | L’Œil Moteur. Art Optique et Cinétique. 1950-1975, Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Strasbourg, France
2004 | Inverted Utopias. Avant-garde Art in Latin America, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Texas, USA
[...] collective exhibitions from 1953
