In Past Show

The Illusive Eye at El Museo del Barrio

Noted as a defining figure of both the Op Art movement and Kinetic Sculpture, Jesus Rafael Soto employed industrial and synthetic materials such as nylon and steel to produce his trademark sculptural reliefs. Soto’s work dealt with pure abstraction, color theory, and the dynamic between background and foreground, as seen in works such as Vibration Blanc et Jaune (paint on wood and metal, 1959), in which the artist stimulates optical effects through the manipulation of color relationships, combining hurried black lines with interruptions of yellow and white. In the 1950s and ‘60s, Soto collaborated with Group Zero artists, including Otto Piene, Heinz Mack, Gunther Uecker, Yves Klein, Lucio Fontana and Jean Tinguely, who stressed unity on an intellectual and creative level. Soto was also influenced by- and influential to the Russian Constructivists and artist contemporaries such as Piet Mondrian.