Jesus Rafael Soto

Born in Venezuela, Jesús Rafael Soto is regarded as one of the most important kinetic artists of the 20th century. Influenced by the works and essays of the Russian Avant-Garde abstract artist Kazimir Malevich, notably Concerning the Spiritual in Art published in 1912, Soto aimed to incorporate perception of movement, instability and three-dimensionality in his art. Through music, the artist found his own abstract and geometric language: ‘[in music, notes] don’t represent anything, but in fact constitute a system of unlimited relationships. In the same way, in order to achieve abstraction, I thought it was important to find a graphic system that would allow me to codify a reality rather than represent it’. Evolving towards a more haptic art in the 1960’s – art meant to be touched by the viewer – Soto created his acclaimed Penetrables series, featuring interactive metal and plastic structures. ‘Matter, time and space form a true trinity, and movement is the force which demonstrates [it]’.

Jesús Rafael Soto’s works are held in the collection of leading international museums, such as the Tate in London, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderno in Rome, among others.