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"COLOR IS NOT ON THE SURFACE, COLOR IS IN SPACE."
- CARLOS CRUZ-DIEZ
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Éditions brings together a selection of bidimensional works by Carlos Cruz-Diez. Cruz-Diez, renowned in the Op Art and Kinetic Art movements, who revolutionized the experience and perception of color. With the obsessive questioning of a technician and employing a rationalist, nearly scientific approach, he experimented with color combinations to see what the various permutations and harmonies could evoke.
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While he is well known for his participatory environments and three dimensional works, he also produced works that lay flat on the page.
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“MY CHALLENGE IS TO REVEAL TO THE VIEWER A REALITY WITHOUT A PAST OR A FUTURE: MY WORKS EXIST IN A PERPETUAL PRESENT."
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In a 2012 interview, Carlos Cruz-Diez expressed that while in art history “painting on a flat surface became synonymous with permanence and eternity”, in his works he attempted to rupture with this stasis to instead create a “chromatic event” in which the work is altered in relation to the viewer’s position, motion, and movement through time and space. “My challenge is to reveal to the viewer a reality without a past or a future: my works exist in a perpetual present,” the artist said in 2019.
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When he chose to work in series it was an intentional exploration of the declension of colors. He programmed systematic sets in an experimental game exploring the virtual sensations produced in the vision of the viewer. The serial works presented in the exhibition range from early works on paper such as the silkscreens Couleur Additive série de 2 (1981) in ochre and orange and the Induction Chromatique series (1988) to later large scale works such as the chromography on aluminum set of Couleur Additive Denise (2007). In Couleur Additive série semana (2013), Cruz-Diez used lithography to create a graphic set of prints with geometric shapes corresponding to the days of the week.
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The Induction Chromatique works are part of one of Cruz-Diez’s eight long term ongoing investigations into the properties of color. This series works with retinal persistence, which is the phenomena in which the opposite corresponding color imprints in the eye after staring at a primary color. While the experience of retinal persistence usually occurs sequentially — such as seeing a virtual sensation of green after staring at red pigment — the Induction Chromatique stabilizes the phenomena into a single experience contained in the work.
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His Couleur Additive series meanwhile works with the radiation of color. When one color plane touches another, a darker vertical line appears at the point of contact. While this line is not physically painted into the work, it is a regular event that occurs in the perception of the viewer. In this series Cruz-Diez worked with this visual evocation of in fact invisible colors, making real the viewer’s experience of colors that are not physically present in the work. For the artist, “Color is not on the surface, color is in space.”
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Commissaire | Julien FrydmanAssistante commissaire | Allyn AglaïaTexte | Allyn Aglaïa
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Carlos Cruz-Diez was a French artist of Venezuelan origin. He was born in Caracas in 1923 and died in Paris in 2019. Since the sixties, he lived and worked in Paris.
Carlos Cruz-Diez is a major artist in the optical and kinetic art movement, which claims "the realization of the instability of reality". Cruz-Diez's extensive research made him into a key thinker of color in the 20th century. The artist conceived the chromatic phenomena as an autonomous reality, evolving independently in space and time in a continuous present.
In 1970, Cruz-Diez represented Venezuela at the Venice Biennale. In 2021, he was chosen to represent the French pavilion Lumière, Lumières during the universal exhibition in Dubaï.
Recent solo exhibitions include Centre Pompidou, Malaga, 2024; Galerie de Arte Nacional, Caracas, 2023; Palais d’Iéna, Paris, 2016; Macba, Buenos Aires, 2014; MUAC, Mexico, 2012; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2011; Guandong Museum of Art, Ghangzhou, 2011 and many others.
Select group exhibitions include Tate Modern, 2025; Kunstmuseum Bern, Denvert Art Museum, and Museum of fine arts, Houston, 2021; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2020; Louisiana Museum, 2016; Sharjah Art Foundation, 2015; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Buenos Aires, and Petit Palais, Paris, 2012; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2010; Centre Pompidou, 2010; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2007; and many others.
His works are in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Tate Modern, London; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Modern Art Museum of Paris and the Pompidou Center, Paris. In 2021, he was chosen to represent the French pavilion Lumière, Lumières during the universal exhibition in Dubai.
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CARLOS CRUZ-DIEZ | TATE MODERN
GROUP EXHIBITION 1 June 2025Carlos Cruz-Diez will participate in the group exhibition Electric Dreams at Tate Modern, curated by Val Ravaglia, open from 28 November 2024 through 1 June 2025. Electric Dreams will explore... -
CARLOS CRUZ-DIEZ | MFAH
SOLO EXHIBITION 6 February - 4 July 2011The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presented a major retrospective of Carlos Cruz-Diez’ work in 2011. Carlos Cruz-Diez: Color in Space and Time features more than 150 works created from... -
CARLOS CRUZ-DIEZ | CENTRE POMPIDOU METZ
GROUP EXHIBITION 28 February 2018 - 22 July 2019Carlos Cruz-Diez was included in the group exhibition L'Aventure de la couleur. Œuvres phares du Centre Pompidou, curated by Emma Levigne, at the Centre Pompidou Metz. The artist created a... -
CARLOS CRUZ-DIEZ | RAINBOW BRIDGE
INSTALLATION 1 November 2023Carlos Cruz-Diez’s monumental artwork, the Rainbow Bridge, was installed in China. Created in 2016, the Chromostructure illuminated the city of Shanghai in November 2023, during the artist’s centenary celebration .... -
CARLOS CRUZ-DIEZ | HAUS KONSTRUKTIV
GROUP EXHIBITION 3 October 2024Carlos Cruz-Diez is included in the group exhibition Konzepte des All-Over, curated by Sabine Schaschl at the museum Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich, open from October 3, 2024 through April 13,... -
CARLOS CRUZ-DIEZ | CENTRE POMPIDOU MALAGA
SOLO EXHIBITION 9 September 2024The Centre Pompidou Malaga presents Color in Motion , a solo exhibition by Carlos-Cruz Diez, running from 21 March through 9 September 2024. Carlos Cruz-Diez (1923-2019) is one of the...
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CARLOS CRUZ-DIEZ | ÉDITIONS: 23 APRIL THROUGH 26 JULY 2025
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