I've set out to make a series of posts that will introduce some famous and talented Venezuelans of the 20th and 21st centuries. The idea is to show the kind, noble, hard-working and creative face of a people who, despite the adverse circumstances of this time they have had to live, continue to bet for a better future. In this opportunity I would like to talk to you about one of the best kinetic and op art artists in the world, the Venezuelan Carlos Cruz Diez.

To talk about Carlos Cruz Diez is to talk about color and geometric forms. This great artist was born on August 17, 1923 in La Pastora. It is said that his passion for art began when he was very young, when his father built a small factory of soft drink bottles and discovered the reflection of light and color thanks to the impact of the sun on the windows. His fascination with literature, art and drawing is also known. This artistic awakening made him enrol in the School of Plastic and Applied Arts where he obtained the diploma of Master of Applied Arts.

Work of the artist Carlos Cruz-Diez, exhibited at the multiple art fair Estampa in 2011

Already in this period of formation, Carlos Cruz Diez begins to be interested in colors, nuances, the environment and begins to investigate the optical phenomena that derive from them. He observes that the spaces are full of colors and that the fundamental thing is to interpret each color. After brief and continuous trips to New York, Spain and Paris, he returned to Caracas and founded the Visual Arts Studio, dedicated to graphic and industrial design. In 1959 he makes his first Couleur Additive and Physichromie.

According to the experts, they say of Cruz Diez:

With his work he shows that color, when interacting with the observer, becomes a real and unique event, capable of evolving in real time and space, without any kind of anecdote and without the help of form or support.

Transcromia

What it means is that in his different works we can perceive that colour and geometric forms change and vibrate, according to the light and the displacements of the spectator. In the same way, experts tend to say that:

Carlos Cruz-Diez's artistic proposal is based on his eight researches that reveal the different behaviors of color: Additive color, Physichromy, Chromatic induction, Mechanical chromointerference, Transcromy, Chromosaturation, Chromoscope and color in space.

For example, the Physiochromia that he began in 1959, constitute the beginnings of his experiments based on kineticism. Let's remember that kineticism is a trend of painting, sculpture, contemporary craftsmanship that refers to those works created to produce the impression or illusion of movement.

Translucent chromeinferent environment

Later, he develops Random Transcromias (1965), a work in which he changes or replaces color in environments, using plexiglass hung in long strips attached to a frame to determine the spaces. Then he invented the chromosaturations (1967), which are saturated spaces of colors that provoke in the spectator certain psychological reactions, according to his state of mind: cold, heat and anguish, among others.

Among the numerous awards that Carlos Cruz Diez has received, he highlights: Commander of Arts and Letters, France; Gold Medal, International Printing Triennial of Norway; the International Painting Prize of the IX São Paulo Biennial; the Grand Prize of the III Biennial of American Art, Córdoba, Argentina; Honorary Member of the Venezuelan Academy of Language; Medal of honor of the city of Marcigny, official title, Paris, France; Paez Medal of the Arts, New York, United States. (VAEA); Penagos Drawing Award, Mapfre Foundation, Madrid, Spain.

Chromosaturation

It must be said that at the beginning Carlos Cruz Diez also worked as an illustrator and graphic designer for El Farol magazine of Creole Petroleum Corporation and other publications. He also realizes the comics for various Venezuelan newspapers. In 1946 he is creative director of the advertising agency McCann-Erickson Venezuela and then, in 1953, is an illustrator of the newspaper El Nacional. He also works as a teacher at the School of Fine Arts and Kinetic Techniques, in Paris. Between 1986 and 1993 he was a tenured professor at the International Institute of Advanced Studies in Caracas and, as if that were not enough, he taught kinetics techniques at the Sorbonne between 1972 and 1980.

Among the most emblematic works of Carlos Cruz-Diez in Venezuela is the work Chromointerferencia of the additive of color, in the facilities of the Simón Bolívar International Airport of Maiquetía. This work has become famous for a not so pleasant and sad event that is happening in our country: the mass exodus of Venezuelans to other countries. This work is the emblematic place of farewells. It is there where family and friends embrace with the promise of being in the future; with the promise of an early return that may never come.

Chromointerference of the additive color

When we see in Maiquetía the chromointerference of the additive color, we think that Carlos Cruz Diez would never have wanted his work to become famous because of the tears that are spilled there. When we see the work, we think that Venezuela is an endearing, plural, complex, different country; our only possible place in this world. A Venezuela that flees, that goes to every second and with it our future is gone. A Venezuela that extends throughout the world, because wherever we go, we will take our country with pride. How we carry the work of Carlos Cruz Diez.

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