Lot 123
Carlos Cruz-Diez (1923- )
Additional Images
Provenance:
Delamare & Cie. Paris;
Pollock Gallery, Toronto from whom purchased by the present Private Collection, Toronto in the early 1970’s
Note:
Carlos Cruz-Diez is known as an influential contemporary master artist for his contribution to the theory and practice of colour, particularly in relation to physical movement. As a leader of the kinetic art movement that became an international phenomenon in the 1950s and 1960s, he was fascinated by the possibility of generating new visual experiences and a more interactive relationship with the viewer.
Cruz-Diez’s “Physichromie” series originated in 1959 and is considered his most important body of work. The term, coined by the artist, means “physical colour” and references the investigation of colour in time and space. When colours are placed in parallel strips and at right angles, their relationships are blended and transformed and the spectator’s viewpoint changes.
An innovator of his time, Cruz-Diez was active at the heart of the movement in Paris and participated in the Denise Rene Gallery’s legendary exhibition series “Le Mouvement” (1955, 1964) that helped to popularize kinetic and op art both in Europe and internationally.