"Art is a complex structure of communication, expression, discovery, invention." Born in Caracas, Carlos Cruz-Diez first studied art at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Aplicadas from 1940 to 1945. While studying there, he participated in a lively discussion group which included artists Jesús-Rafael Soto and Alejandro Otero, key figures of the Venezuelan kinetic art movement. He was also influenced by his study of impressionism, as it applied to experiments with color. In his earliest work, Cruz-Diez painted figurative canvases intended to reflect and comment upon social issues. In 1954, influenced by his study of the Bauhaus and the European avant-garde, Cruz-Diez created his first abstract and interactive projects. A year later, he began a series of Objetos rítmicos móviles that consisted of multicolored, movable figures made from wood and, in 1957, he began experimenting with colored light. His first Physichromie--translated as "physical color" these works explore the physical dimension of color--was made in 1959. The following year, Cruz-Diez and his family moved to Paris, where he met Argentine artist Luis Tomasello, and members of the Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel, and he quickly became an important member of the artistic communities there. In 1971, Cruz-Diez established his workshop on the rue Pierre Sémard, in a former Belle Epoque-era butcher's shop. From that workshop, where he continues to work, he pursued his explorations of color and light with Physichromies, Chromosaturations, Chromo-interference Environments, and large-scale public projects, all of which were developed as investigations into visual and perceptual experiences of color. The artist describes his Chromosaturation series as the exploration of an often-unnoticed reality: "That reality (which I consider visible) leads us along other paths, both perceptive and sensory, to parallel ideas of beauty and sublimation." Cruz-Diez is internationally considered a master artist of the 20th and 21st centuries for his contributions to the theory and practice of color. SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2013: Carlos Cruz-Diez, Light Show, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, London
2012: Carlos Cruz-Diez, Sicardi Gallery, Houston?
2011: Carlos Cruz-Diez: Color in Space and Time, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
2010: Carlos Cruz Diez: The Embodied Experience of Color, Miami Art Museum, Miami?
2008: (In)formed by Color: Carlos Cruz-Diez, Americas Society, New York
2007: Carte Blanche Denise René Gallery, Paris?
La Couleur Dans L'Espace, Maison de l'Amerique llatine, Paris?
Carlos Cruz-Diez, Sicardi Gallery ?
2005: Carlos Cruz-Diez, Gego, Jesus-Rafael Soto, Works from the 1950's to 1970's, Sicardi Gallery, Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami Carlos Cruz-Diez's work has also been displayed prominently in numerous historically significant group exhibitions including Inverted Utopias: Avant-Garde Art in Latin America at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2004); The Responsive Eye at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1967); Latin American Art 1931-1966 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1967); and Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1993). SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France
Centre National d'Art Contemporain Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Collection of Latin American Art, University of Essex, England
Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas
Musee de Grenoble, France
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Bogotá, Colombia Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Sofia Imber, Caracas, Venezuela
Museo de Arte Costarricense, San Jose, Costa Rica
Museo de Arte Moderno "Jesus Soto," Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela
Museo de Arte Moderno, "La Tertulia," Cali, Colombia
Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellin, Colombia
Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela
Museo de la Solidaridad, Salvador Allende, Santiago de Chile
Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Museum für Konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt, Germany
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
Museum of Modern Art, Sydney, Australia
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, California
Tate Gallery, Millbank, London, England
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England