Raised in the small regional capital of Ciudad Bolivar with limited exposure to art, Jesús Rafael Soto received a scholarship to study at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Aplicadas in Caracas from 1942-1947. During this time, Venezuela was undergoing societal and cultural shifts as a result of the ending of a thirty year period of dictatorial rule under Juan Vicente Gómez. This political change sparked developments towards modernization in an attempt to leave behind Venezuela’s isolationist policies of the past. As a result, Soto participated in an emerging society that advocated for Venezuelan art to be elevated and recognized at the international level. Venezuelan artists like Soto began to shed the traditional regionalist style and became advocates for an abstract approach.

This group of Venezuelan artists and intellectuals would later reconvene in Paris in 1950. Post-war Paris attracted a myriad of European and Latin American intellectuals, many of whom were fleeing various forms of political instability in their home countries. The French were eager to reclaim Paris as the world’s art capital and therefore granted numerous scholarships, thus fostering a robust international art scene, of which Soto became an integral member, catapulting him into the international art scene. By combining geometric and organic forms, Soto began an exploration into animated kinetic abstractions. The present lot—a three dimensional assemblage built with a variety of textures and materials—immerses viewers through the interplay of repeating vertical lines intersected with curved hanging elements, creating a mesmerizing visual vibration.