Movement, Style, School or Type of Art:
Though most frequently associated with Op Art, Soto was, more precisely, a Kinetic artist. His works were meant to display not only the implied movement of Op, but also the actual movement Kinetic Art provides by allowing the viewer to participate, or "move through" the piece.
This was especially notable in his Penetrables series of the 1960s, where spectators were invited to walk through lots of hanging nylon filament line.
Soto is also rightly linked with the Geometric movement in Venezuela.
Date and Place of Birth:
July 5, 1923, Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela
Life:
Trained in his native Venezuela, Soto's early influences were Cubism, Cézanne and Mondrian. It wasn't until he moved to Paris, in the 1950's, that he found his true calling in geometric art. (It probably helped that he also met kindred spirits - Victor Vasarely, for one - in Paris.) Besides his Kinetic works, Soto is best known for his use of modern materials such as nylon filament thread, metal rods, steel, aluminum, perspex (transparent acrylic resin) and industrial-grade paint.
Important Works:
- Spiral, 1955
- Penetrables (sculpture series), 1960s
- Suspended Apparent Volume, 1976
- Ambivalences (series), 1980s
- Nylon Cube, 1983
Date and Place of Death:
January 19, 2005, Paris
Go to Artist Profiles: Names beginning with "S" or Artist Profiles: Main Index
