Jesús Rafael Soto was an influential and central figure of post-war modernism. He participated in the collective exhibition "Le mouvement" (1955) at the Galerie Denise René in Paris, one of the foundational moments of that style. Throughout his career, he played a crucial role in redefining the scope and social function of the artwork through the investigation of the space-time unity of the plastic object.
Having studied Fine Arts in Caracas, he settled in Paris in 1950, where he became part of the international group of artists seeking to renew the experimental art scene. Although he is commonly associated with Op Art, Soto's work is characterized more by the continuous study of movement and the dematerialization of form, producing kinetic constructions in which the active participation of the viewer becomes key.
In 1958, he began his series "Vibrations," works created by overlapping multiple planes of grids and movable objects that generate infinite possibilities of vibrations and variations. Soto succeeded in creating works accessible to all people, without distinguishing age or the viewer's cultural capital, appealing to the subject's experience in relation to the artistic object.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Inmateriales. Jesús Soto. Un homenaje, Centro cultural B.O.D., Caracas, Venezuela
Jesús Soto, Cor, forma, vibração, Dan Galeria, São Paulo, Brazil
Jesús Rafael Soto: The Instability of the Real, Galería RGR, Mexico City, Mexico
Jesús R. Soto, Galería Elvira González, Madrid, Spain
2022
Soto: Prints and multiples, Marlborough gallery, Nueva York, EUA
Invisible: a tale of ethereal lines, León Tovar gallery, Nueva York, EUA
Materia y Vibración, Galerie Perrotin, Nueva York, EUA
2020
Carrément Soto, Galerie Denise René, Espace Marais, Paris, France
Perception: Works from 1964 – 1992, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, EUA
2019
Soto. The Fourth Dimension. The Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain
Soto: Vibrations, 1950-1960, Hauser & Wirth, Nueva York, EUA
2015 | Jesús Rafael Soto, Une Rétrospective, Musée Soulages, Rodez, France
2014 | Jesús Rafael Soto: Houston Penetrable, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, EUA
2013 | Soto dans le collection du Museé national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2006
Soto virtual, Trasnocho Cultural, Caracas, Venezuela
Virtualidad vibrante, Centro de Arte La Estancia, Caracas, Venezuela
Visión en movimiento, Fundación PROA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Visione en movimiento, Galleria d’Arte Moderna é Contemporaneo, Bergamo, Italy
2005
Visión en movimiento, Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico
Soto. A gran escala, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas Sofía Ímber, Caracas, Venezuela
2003 | A gran escala, Centro Cultural Metropolitano, Quito, Ecuador Soto. Le mouvement, Galerie Denise René, Paris, France
2001 | Retrospectiva, Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, Bogotá, Colombia
[...] individual exhibitions from 1971
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Optical and Movement, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Beijing, China
Geometrismos. Jesús Soto y su tiempo, Espacio Arte al Cubo del Cubo Negro, Caracas, Venezuela
The Dynamic Eye: Op and Kinetic Art from the Tate Collection, Museum of Art Pudong, Pudong, China
Masters that changed the city, Coral Gables Museum, Miami, EUA
Mouvement et Lumiére, Fondation Villa Datris, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, France
Kinetic art past and present, Galeria Raquel Arnaud, Sao Paulo, Brazil
2022
Wave, Marlborough gallery, Nueva York, EUA
Zero, pop und minimal – Die 1960er und 1970er jahre, Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal, Germany
Cinétique! La sculpture en movement, Fondation Villa Datris, Paris, France
Révolutions Xenakis, La Cité de la Musique, Paris, France
Homagge to Ulrich Schumacher, Emil Schumacher Museum, Hagen, Germany
Hängepartie. Kunst mit offenem ende, Museum für Konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt, Germany
2021
Color and Motion, Ideas and Dreams, The Neuberger Museum of Art, Nueva York, EUA
La forma elusiva. Insurgencia y ruptura en el arte venezolano, Espacio Mercantil Altamira,
2020 Multiplied, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, San Luis, EUA
Sur Moderno. Journeys of Abstraction, The Museum of Modern Art, Nueva York, EUA
Axis of Horizon, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
2019
SYN KRONOS, Galería RGR, Mexico City, Mexico
Outlines, Leon Tovar Gallery, Nueva York, EUA
Le parti de la peinture, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France
2018
Kinesthesia: Latin American Kinetic Art, 1954-1969, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, EUA
Todo es movimiento: op art y arte cinético en la colección Würth, Museo Würth, La Rioja, Spain
The other transatlantic Kinetic & Op Art in Central & Eastern Europe and Latin America, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Polonia
The other transatlantic Kinetic & Op Art in Central & Eastern Europe and Latin America 1950s-1970s, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Rusia, Caracas, Venezuela
2016
Transmissions: Art in Eastern Europe and Latin America, 1960-1980, The Museum of Modern Art, Nueva York, EUA
Pan American Modernism Avant-Garde Art Latin America and the United States, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, EUA
The illusive eye, El Museo del Barrio, Nueva York, EUA
Eye attack, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark
Un musée imaginé. Trois collections européennes: Centre Pompidou, Tate, MMK, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France
2015
Superposiciones: Arte latinoamericano en colecciones mexicanas, Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico
La línea continua, Blanton Museum of Art, Universidad de Texas, Austin, EUA
Libertad de expresión: The Art Museum of the Americas and Cold War Politics, Art Museum of the Americas, Organization of American States, Washington DC, EUA
2013
Schwarz-Weiss, Kleines Museum, Kultur auf der Peunt, Weissenstadt, Germany
La invención concreta: Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Paris, France
Myth and Materiality: Latin American Art from the Permanent Collection, 1930-1990, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, EUA
Intersections: MoLAA’s Permanent Collection, Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, EUA
2011
Ejercicios ópticos, Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela
Suprasensorial: Experimetos en luz, color y espacio, Museum of Contemporary Art,
Los Museé national d’ art moderne Collections contemporaines (des années 1960 à nos jours, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
2010 | Embracing Modernity: Venezuelan Geometric, Abstraction, The Patricia & Philip Frost Art Museum, Miami, EUA
2009 | North Looks South. Building the Latin American Art Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, EUA 2008 Revolución Cinética, Museo de Arte Nacional de Chiado, Lisbon, Portugal
2007 | The Geometry of Hope, Latin American Abstract Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros L’ CEil Moteur. Art Optique et Cinétique. 1950.1975, Musée d’ Art Moderne et Contemporaine, Strasbourg, France
2006
Zero, Internationale Künstler Avantgarde des 50er/60er Jahre, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany 2004
Inverted Utopias: Avant-Garde Art in Latin America, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, EUA
Beyond Geometry: Experiments in Form 1940s-70s, Los Angeles Country Museum of Art, Los Ángeles, EUA
2002 | París: Capital of the Arts, 1990-1968, Royal Academy of Arts, Londres, UK
2000 | Heterotopías. Medio siglo sin-lugar 1918-1968, Museo Nacional, Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
1998 | Zero Internacional, Musée d’ Art Moderne et d’ Art Contemporain de la Ville de Nice, Nice, France
1967 | Lumière et Mouvement, Musée d’ Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
1963 | Venezuela del paisaje a la expresión plástica. 10 artistas contemporáneos, Museo Nacional de Arte Contemporáneo, Madrid, Spain
WORKS IN MUSEUMS AND PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany
Sammlung Lenz Schönberg, Munich, Germany
Josef Albers Museum, Bottrop, Germany
Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld, Germany
Sprengel Museum Hannover, Hannover, Germany
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Gremany
Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Museum Wurth, Künzelsau, Germany
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de la Universidad de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil
Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Santiago de Chile, Chile
Museo de Arte Moderno La Tertulia, Cali, Colombia
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seúl, South Korea
Ho-Am Art Museum, Seúl, South Korea
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
Fundación ARCO, Madrid, España Museo de La Asegurada, Alicante, Spain
Museum of Modern Art, Nueva York, EUA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Nueva York, EUA
Oklahoma City Art Museum, Oklahoma City, EUA
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, EUA
Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, Nantes, France
Musée d’Art Contemporain, Lyon, France
Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, París, France
Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin, Italy
Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna Contemporanea di Roma, Rome, Italy
Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
Museum of Modern Art, Hokkaido, Japan
Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan
Itami City Art Museum, Itami, Japan
Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Ciudad de México, Mexico
Museo de Arte Latino Americano Contemporáneo de Managua, Managua, Nicaragua
Reflex Miniature Museum of Contemporary Art, Amsterdam, Netherland
Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherland
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherland
Muezul de Arta Universala Burcuresti, Bucarest, Romania
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, Switzerland
Tate Modern, London, UK
Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela
Museo de Arte Moderno - Fundación Jesús Soto, Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela
Museo de Arte Moderno de Mérida Juan Astorga Anta, Mérida, Venezuela
