CARLOS CRUZ-DIEZ

Overview

"Colour is not something to be applied to a surface with a brush; it needs to be brought into the space. It took me many years of experience, research and failure to create works such as the Chromosaturation installations, which allow light to evolve like an event."

Carlos Cruz-Diez was a French artist of Venezuelan origin whose practice, since the 1960s, explored the optical and kinetic art movement, focusing on "the realization of the instability of reality." He became a key thinker of color in the 20th century, conceiving chromatic phenomena as an autonomous reality evolving independently in space and time within a continuous present. Born in Caracas in 1923, he lived and worked in Paris from the 1960s until his death in 2019.

In 1970, Cruz-Diez represented Venezuela at the Venice Biennale. Among numerous recognitions, in 2021 he was chosen to represent the French pavilion Lumière, Lumières during the Universal Exhibition in Dubai.

Selected solo exhibitions: Centre Pompidou, Málaga (2024); Galería de Arte Nacional, Caracas (2023); Palais d’Iéna, Paris (2016); MACBA, Buenos Aires (2014); MUAC, Mexico City (2012); The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2011); Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou (2011).

Selected group exhibitions: Tate Modern, London (2025); Kunstmuseum Bern; Denver Art Museum; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2021); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2020); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk (2016); Sharjah Art Foundation (2015); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires; Petit Palais, Paris (2012); The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2010); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2010); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2007).

Selected institutional collections: Tate Modern, London; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Modern Art Museum of Paris; Centre Pompidou, Paris.

Exhibitions