Artists You Should Know: Jesús-Rafael Soto

It was a great week for emails, and one in particular contained a request for an artist's name: " ... he just died. He did Op (i think) and his first name was real religious. Can you help?" Since I always (attempt to) aim to please, my best answer is the recently departed Venezuelan painter and sculptor, Jesús-Rafael Soto. He was into Kinetic Art, but has been associated with the Op movement ever since he knew and exhibited with those artists in Paris in the 1950s.

To be totally honest, O Anonymous One, Kinetic Art isn't one of my big passions. I respect it, even though it doesn't exactly make my heart leap with gladness at being a part of the human race. What I like about Soto, though, is that he was passionate about it, and remained faithful to Kinetic Art for decades. No frenetic leaping around, searching for his "true" calling, he just steadily explored his area of expertise.

Thanks for writing and asking questions; I hope this has helped. And, if I may suggest - I always appreciate knowing a name when someone writes. It's only fair. You know mine, after all.