Summary of the Parallel Series Vibrant, 1979

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.

This piece embodies the artist’s emblematic relationship with simplified visual elements and is part of his Vibrations series. Featuring parallel lines in a binary palette, the composition seems to move as we observe it. Soto has the ability to trick our eyes into perceiving movement and illusionary phenomena.