(Caracas 1923–2019 Paris)

Chromointerférence Série Alicia 6. 2010.

Colour screenprint on paper and screenprint on plexiglas.

Signed and numbered on the label on the reverse: Cruz-Diez 3/8, also with the description of the work.

50 x 60 cm.

Provenance: Purchased directly from the artist by the present owner.

“Une autre notion de la couleur”
(maxim for the oeuvre of Carlos Cruz-Diez)

Carlos Cruz-Diez’ oeuvre can be divided into 8 series. Nearly all the series have as their basic principle the “Couleur Additive” pattern: narrow parallel painted lines, which converge and produce the optical effect of a new, often darker virtual colour. The present work belongs to the series known as “Chromointerférence”, which first came about in 1964. This series of works consists of a colour silkscreen with a pattern from the “Couleurs Additives”, over which a transparent foil with a similar printed lined pattern has been mounted. Through the movement of the transparent foil and the shifting position of the viewer, there emerges, as indicated in the title, a Chromointerférence, - an interplay of colour and form. New colours are produced, which originally were not there – an optical, yet aesthetic illusion.

The artist Carlos Cruz-Diez was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1923 and studied at the School of Fine Art there between 1940 and 1945. Alongside Jésus Raphael Soto, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Tinguely and Günther Uecker, Cruz-Diez is one of the most important exponents of Kinetic Art. Kinetic Art is inspired by the aesthetic of the mobility of three-dimensional art objects. It seeks to produce this movement by means of external factors such as wind, sun, electronic or mechanical motors, or through the viewer themselves. It encompasses a broad range of technical means.