Carlos Cruz-Diez: Informed by Color

Gabriela Rangel, Americas Society

Americas Society, 2009 - Art - 200 pages

One of the finest exponents of Latin American Kinetic and Op art, the Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz-Diez (born in 1923) is a legend among contemporaries such as Jesus Soto and Alejandro Otero--and across Latin America and Europe--but has been woefully little exhibited in North America. Those who caught the groundbreaking 2007 traveling exhibition "The Geometry of Hope" will recall Cruz-Diez's standoutcontributions, which had viewers bumping into one another as they negotiated the color shifts and sensations of motion that his sculptural constructions induced. A pioneer in color theory and color perception, Cruz-Diez solicits physical participation in his audience. In late 2008, the Americas Society, known for its leading role in presenting innovative site installations by artists such as Gego, Lygia Pape and Pedro Reyes, orchestrated Cruz-Diez's first solo exhibition in the United States, for which "Carlos Cruz Diez: InFormed by Color" is the exhibition catalogue--the first comprehensive publication in English devoted to the artist.

Contents

• Foreword: 7
• New Mythology: 28
• Body and Soul of Painting: 40

About the author

Gabriela Rangel holds an M.A. in curatorial studies from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, an M.A. in media and communications studies from the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello in Caracas, and a B.A. in film studies from the International Film School at San Antonio de los Banos, Cuba. She is currently the Director of Visual Arts at the Americas Society. Prior to this position she was the Assistant Curator of Latin American Art and Programs Coordinator for the ICA of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She is co-Editor of A Principality of Its Own: 40 Years of Visual Arts at Americas Society. She has also contributed essays to exhibition catalogues including Da Adversidade Vivemos: Contemporary Latin American Conceptual Artists (Musee de Art Modern de la Ville de Paris); Liliana Porter (Centro de Arte Recoleta, Buenos Aires); Arte Social: Claudio Perna (Galeria de Arte Nacional); and Arte no es Vida (Museo del Barrio).

Alexander Alberrois Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Florida, Gainesville, and the author of Conceptual Art and the Politics of Publicity. He is also the co-editor of Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthologyand Two-Way Mirror Power: Selected Writingsby Dan Graham on His Art.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Carlos Cruz-Diez: Informed by Color
• Editors: Gabriela Rangel, Americas Society
• author of text accompanying photos: Nuit Banai, Alexander Alberro, Estrellita Brodsky
• Illustrated by: Carlos Cruz Diez
• Contributor: Carlos Cruz Diez
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Americas Society, 2009
• Original from: Pennsylvania State University
• Digitized: Dec 9, 2010
• ISBN: 1879128357, 9781879128354
• Length: 200 pages
• Subjects: Art / Caribbean & Latin American; Art / Individual Artists / General