Private Collection, Miami (acquired directly from the artist)
Catalogue Essay
“In order to achieve abstraction, I felt that I had to develop a language that was totally independent from the elements of figurative art… it was necessary to find my own language, not borrowed from one. I began with the repetition of a simple element, the square, so that I achieved another reality through the process of repetition." Jesús Rafael Soto
Jesús Rafael Soto was born in Ciudad Bolívar and studied at the School of Visual and Applied Arts in Caracas. During this period he became acquainted with Los Disidentes, a group of artists that included Alejandro Otero and Carlos Cruz-Diez. In addition to his fellow compatriots, Soto’'s work was influenced by Kazimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian.
The main artistic tenets evinced in Soto's works are pure abstraction, vibrations, progressions and geometric rigor. They can be seen through the use of lines and superimposed squares in his sculptures, made with paint and a series of industrial and synthetic materials. He spent much time in Europe, becoming a key member of the Group Zero movement, which included such artists as Lucio Fontana, Gunther Uecker and Yves Klein. As a result, Soto's work also incorporates modernist concepts such as light, time, movement, color manipulation and space. All of these facets place him as an important figure within the Kinetic and Op Art movements.
signed, titled and dated "Naranja Superior Soto 2003" on the reverse acrylic on wood and metal 32 1/4 x 32 3/8 x 5 1/2 in. (82 x 82.2 x 14 cm.) Executed in 2003.