Carlos Cruz-Diez: The greatest exponent of optical and kinetic art (+Christmas)

Published at: 17/08/2025 08:11 AM

On August 17, 1932, the plastic artist Carlos Cruz-Diez, considered the greatest representative of Venezuelan kinetic art, was born in Caracas.

Cruz-Diez, together with Jesús Soto, Alejandro Otero and Juvenal Ravelo, make up the kinetic movement in the country, which developed throughout the 20th century, to become one of the most prominent in Latin America.

In 1959 he created his first Physichromy (visual effects and in which he often applied colorful mixtures on a single plane, giving rise to a virtual or subjective color) and after successfully exhibiting a group of works with a kinetic tendency at the Museum of Fine Arts, he went to Paris, the city where he lived until his physical departure on July 27, 2019.

Carlos Cruz-Diez's artistic proposition is based on his eight investigations that highlight the different behaviors of color: Additive Color, Physichromy, Chromatic Induction, Mechanical Chromointerference, Transchromy, Chromosaturation, Chromoscope and color in space. Each of these stages with significant works and where the artist's work can be observed.

In Venezuela, Cruz-Diez's works decorate various corners of the national geography. From the engine rooms of the Guri Hydroelectric Power Plant (Chromatic Setting, 1977-1986) to the Barquisimeto Radial Chromostructure (Homenaje al Sol, 1983), or the Chromatic Induction of the Stratos Tower in Valencia (1990), their geometric shapes and color mixes create characteristic environments. In 1992, he designed the Plaza de la Realidad Virtual, for the Venezuelan Pavilion representing national plastic art at Expo Sevilla 92, Spain.

Mazo News Team