Jesús-Rafael Soto

1923 - 2005

Born in 1923 in Venezuela, Jesús-Rafael Soto arrived in France in 1950. He was heavily influenced by Abstraction and became a major figure of Kinetic Art. He participated in Le Mouvement exhibition at the Denise René Gallery in Paris in 1955, alongside Tinguely, Calder, Duchamp, Vasarely, etc. Jean Tinguely helped him create the wall decoration for the Venezuelan pavilion at the Brussels World Fair of 1958, contributing a line-drawing machine. Both artists questioned the public’s relationship with artworks, by bringing their creations to life. Thus, Soto employed suspended plastic wires and aluminium tubes, which spectators must push through to enter his Penetrables.