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Lot Essay
In the late 50s Jesus Rafael Soto and Alejandro Otero, along with Carlos Cruz-Diez, were the principal forces behind the abstract movements in Venezuela. They met at the Escuela de Artes Plasticas, and later traveled to Paris, where they found the path towards abstraction and got the inspiration to change the Venezuelan existing art scene. Upon their return from Europe, they formed the group Los Disidentes and published several manifestos against the academic teachings while propelling modernism, geometric abstraction and kineticism. Likewise, they were involved in the creation of the Ciudad Universitaria de la Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas. This project and many other public works executed by Soto and Otero at the time were the economic prosperity of Venezuela was resulting in the adoption of modernist ideals.
Soto was mostly interested in the visual effects derived from the studies of light through optical illusions. He created an impression of continuous vibrations that seem to intensify by the placement and movement of the observer. In works like Vibracion I wires move in every direction against a ground of irregular parallel lines. It was the transformation of matter into something atmospheric that preoccupied him most. Soto spoke of taking an element such as a line, a piece of wood or metal, and transform it into pure light.into light vibrations; he wanted to turn matter into energy. In defending his own beliefs, Soto actively opposed the popular domain of the tachism and informalist painting movements in vogue in 1963, emphatically affirming the existence of the object-painting; he aspired to create an environmentally conscious art. Furthermore, Soto believed in the development of a new visual language that could substitute the traditional elements of painting. A language derived from the concept of form as a primordial element of the composition and above the importance traditionally given to the harmonious coexistence of line and color in painting. A language that rejected all in favor of pure and simple structures such as the vibrations; structures that embedded the idea of movement outside of the descriptive character of painting.
Since the cafetera series executed in 1948, Otero made a series of paintings and collages using brightly colored lines on a flat white background. From here he developed the coloritmos, which are works that derived directly from the walls he had designed for some of the buildings in the Ciudad Univeristaria. They are vertical panels painted with duco in vibrant colors on a white background randomly, yet rhythmically interrupted by black vertical forms. The interaction between black and the color bands produce a dynamic surface resulting in the optical perception of movement. Like Soto, visual perception was of seminal importance in the experiencing of the work of art.
was executed in 1970 as a special commission for the Museo Jesús A. Soto in Ciudad Bolivar, a museum designed to host the most important works by Venezuelan artists of the time. ITablón de Pampatar II in 1998 the museum closed an the work was returned to Mr. Alfredo Boulton, who placed it alongside the Tablón de Pampatar I, in his Pampatar beach house.
Soto was mostly interested in the visual effects derived from the studies of light through optical illusions. He created an impression of continuous vibrations that seem to intensify by the placement and movement of the observer. In works like Vibracion I wires move in every direction against a ground of irregular parallel lines. It was the transformation of matter into something atmospheric that preoccupied him most. Soto spoke of taking an element such as a line, a piece of wood or metal, and transform it into pure light.into light vibrations; he wanted to turn matter into energy. In defending his own beliefs, Soto actively opposed the popular domain of the tachism and informalist painting movements in vogue in 1963, emphatically affirming the existence of the object-painting; he aspired to create an environmentally conscious art. Furthermore, Soto believed in the development of a new visual language that could substitute the traditional elements of painting. A language derived from the concept of form as a primordial element of the composition and above the importance traditionally given to the harmonious coexistence of line and color in painting. A language that rejected all in favor of pure and simple structures such as the vibrations; structures that embedded the idea of movement outside of the descriptive character of painting.
Since the cafetera series executed in 1948, Otero made a series of paintings and collages using brightly colored lines on a flat white background. From here he developed the coloritmos, which are works that derived directly from the walls he had designed for some of the buildings in the Ciudad Univeristaria. They are vertical panels painted with duco in vibrant colors on a white background randomly, yet rhythmically interrupted by black vertical forms. The interaction between black and the color bands produce a dynamic surface resulting in the optical perception of movement. Like Soto, visual perception was of seminal importance in the experiencing of the work of art.
was executed in 1970 as a special commission for the Museo Jesús A. Soto in Ciudad Bolivar, a museum designed to host the most important works by Venezuelan artists of the time. ITablón de Pampatar II in 1998 the museum closed an the work was returned to Mr. Alfredo Boulton, who placed it alongside the Tablón de Pampatar I, in his Pampatar beach house.