Jesús Rafael Soto Venezuelan, 1923-2005
Works
Biography
With dynamic sculptures and installations composed from synthetic materials, Jesús Rafael Soto helped pioneer Op art and kinetic art. He drew on color theory and the flattened planes of Cubism as he crafted his three-dimensional works from nylon, Perspex, steel, and industrial paint. Thanks to Soto’s keen understanding of geometry and negative space, his works often appear to vibrate or simply shift in space. Soto’s art education took him from his native Venezuela, where he studied in Caracas and directed the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Maracaibo, to Paris, where he associated with experimental artists including Jean Tinguely, Victor Vasarely, Alexander Calder, and Fernand Léger. His work has been shown in New York, London, Paris, São Paulo, Berlin, Caracas, and Tokyo and belongs in the collections of the Museo Reina Sofía, the Tate, the Centre Pompidou, the Stedelijk Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Moderna Museet, and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires. Soto’s auction prices have reached seven-figure sums.