Carlos Cruz-Diez was born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1923. Considered one of the major exponents of contemporary art, he lived and worked in Paris from 1960 until his death in 2019. His roots go back to the kinetic movement, or “cinetismo” of the 1950’s and 1960’s. He describes his inquiries and proposals as the “art of real motion and space”. His visual artistry has expanded the accepted idea of color, showing that perception of a chromatic phenomenon is independent of form.

His work shows that color in interaction with the viewer becomes an autonomous reality that can be launched into space, with no need of anecdotes or symbols, evolving on its own, independent of form and/or support. He describes himself as an artist who is also a researcher: “There is nothing random about my work; everything is thought out, programmed and coded. Freedom and emotions are only involved in the combination of colors, a task required to sustain a particular standard: it is necessary for expressing what I am trying to say. It is a blending of reason and emotion. I do not get inspired; I think.”

Cruz-Diez’s works are part of the permanent collections of institutions such as: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Tate Modern, London; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne; and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, among others.