- 13
Jesús Rafael Soto
Estimate
100,000 - 150,000 EUR
Log in to view results
bidding is closed
Description
- JESÚS RAFAEL SOTO
- La Colonne Blanche
- painted wood, wire and wooden rods
- 156 by 158 by 94cm.; 61 3/8 by 62 1/4 by 37in.
- Executed in 1967.
Provenance
Galerie Denise René, Paris
Acquired directly from the above by Alexander Orlow for the Peter Stuyvesant Collection in 1967
Acquired directly from the above by Alexander Orlow for the Peter Stuyvesant Collection in 1967
Exhibited
Maastricht, Stichting Cultureel Centrum in Dominicanenkerk, Het Museum in de Fabriek, Peter Stuyvesant Collectie, 1968
Utrecht, Centraal Museum (& travelling), Ruimtetijdkunst, 1971-1973
Hasselt, Provinciaal Museum, A Choice within a Choice, 1981-1982
Oss, Tentoonstelling Jan Cunencentrum, Prikkels in Beeld, 1984
Paris, Jeu de Paume, Jesus Rafael Soto, 1996-1997
Literature
Harry Abrams, Hans Jaffé, et al., Adventure in Art, An International Group of Art Collections in Industrial Environments, Milan ♍& Amsterdam 1970, p. 117, illustrated in colour&nb🌼sp;
Condition
Colour:
The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although the overall tonality is much brighter in the original with the rods tending more towards a clean white and not yellow as per the catalogue illustration.
Condition
This work is in very good condition. There are some chips to the extreme outer edges as well as to lower corner tips of the composition. There is a 3cm vertical rub mark 20cm above the bottom edge of the central stripped panel, and a further rub mark along the centre of the top edge. All surface irregularities to the wood are original and inherent to the artist's working process. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
"A surface is only an element, the visible part of a proposition that continues towards the infinity beyond the limit of the canvas." The artist cited in: Exhibition Catalogue, Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum, Jesus Rafael Soto, 1969, n.p.
Op Art and Kinetic Art emerged in the mid 1950s as a movement with a strong interest in the objective experience and in scientific experiment. Although there had been a number of isolated instances of Optical Art going back to the 1940s, it only unified as a movement in April 1955 when Denise René organised the historically acclaimed exhibition 'Le Mouvement' at her Paris gallery. Bringing together works by Jesus Rafael Soto, Pol Bury, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Tinguely, Victor Vasarely, Yaacov Agam and Egill Jacobsen, it marked the dawn of a new era in art based around the concept of physical and optical movement through which to experience the "fourth dimension" or time factor involved in the experience of looking. That exhibtion led Victor Vasarely to coin the terms Op Art and Kinetic Art as a means of describing the works created in this vein, and announced to the world a whole new generation of artists whose work was to influence profoundly the international contemporary art scene for the next two decades.
These artists committed themselves to the exploration of visual phenomena through investigating the principles of perception and the physical laws of light and optics. The analysis of seeing, and its physical and psychological consequences, was the subject of their focus, leading to a more participatory role for the viewer who was no longer considered a counterpart of the work of art but an integral part of it. No one added greater beauty or perceptual intensity to this visual investigation more than Jesus Rafael Soto, a Venezuelan artist based in Paris, who introduced hanging elements in front of his works to create powerful and changing optical effects. Soto opted for simple and linear metallic components to achieve optimal dynamic qualities and was convinced that somewhere in the ambiguous space between the surface of the painting and the viewer, suspended physically and metaphorically between the Real and the Imaginary, a blissful optical illusion could be found. Thus the optical interference of the subtly dynamic, suspended elements in front of a striated screen produces an optical effect of vibration, which is "real to the eyes although it has no material existence" (Guy Brett in Exhibition Catalogue, London, Marlborough Gerson Gallery, Soto, 1969, p. 14).
Surpassing the mere exploitation of optical effects, the energy radiated by the lyrical oscillations in Colonne Blanche creates a psychological tension that climaxes in a complex mirage of shimmering whites. It is exactly typical of the artist's entirely new visual lexicon, which successfully managed to attain the impalpable and invisible. "The immaterial is the sensory reality of the universe' confessed the artist, for whom art brought 'the sensory knowledge of the immaterial. To become conscious of the immaterial in its state of pure structure is to make the final leap towards the absolute" (the artist cited in: Exhibition Catalogue, Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Rafael Soto, 1969, p. 26). Colonne Blanche is an outstanding example of the artist's groundbreaking kinetic relief constructions that has magnificently incorporated the optical and physical effects of vibration of his best work.
With artists heralding from South America, Eastern Europe and Western Europe, Soto was a leading figure within a movement whose spread and influence was truly global. Non subjective, spontaneous, and with a focus upon intimate engagement with the individual viewer, Op Art witnessed an immediate world resonance and was seen to be the natural counterpoint to Pop Art from which it took its catchy name. Whereas the latter restored the power of the image and its ability to bear witness to the social world, Kinetic art questioned the very physical experience of art, interrogating the traditional fixity of the object, the virtual colour achieved through vibration, and most importantly the notion of duration which was until then the sacred and exclusive attribute of Cinema and Music.
Op Art and Kinetic Art emerged in the mid 1950s as a movement with a strong interest in the objective experience and in scientific experiment. Although there had been a number of isolated instances of Optical Art going back to the 1940s, it only unified as a movement in April 1955 when Denise René organised the historically acclaimed exhibition 'Le Mouvement' at her Paris gallery. Bringing together works by Jesus Rafael Soto, Pol Bury, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Tinguely, Victor Vasarely, Yaacov Agam and Egill Jacobsen, it marked the dawn of a new era in art based around the concept of physical and optical movement through which to experience the "fourth dimension" or time factor involved in the experience of looking. That exhibtion led Victor Vasarely to coin the terms Op Art and Kinetic Art as a means of describing the works created in this vein, and announced to the world a whole new generation of artists whose work was to influence profoundly the international contemporary art scene for the next two decades.
These artists committed themselves to the exploration of visual phenomena through investigating the principles of perception and the physical laws of light and optics. The analysis of seeing, and its physical and psychological consequences, was the subject of their focus, leading to a more participatory role for the viewer who was no longer considered a counterpart of the work of art but an integral part of it. No one added greater beauty or perceptual intensity to this visual investigation more than Jesus Rafael Soto, a Venezuelan artist based in Paris, who introduced hanging elements in front of his works to create powerful and changing optical effects. Soto opted for simple and linear metallic components to achieve optimal dynamic qualities and was convinced that somewhere in the ambiguous space between the surface of the painting and the viewer, suspended physically and metaphorically between the Real and the Imaginary, a blissful optical illusion could be found. Thus the optical interference of the subtly dynamic, suspended elements in front of a striated screen produces an optical effect of vibration, which is "real to the eyes although it has no material existence" (Guy Brett in Exhibition Catalogue, London, Marlborough Gerson Gallery, Soto, 1969, p. 14).
Surpassing the mere exploitation of optical effects, the energy radiated by the lyrical oscillations in Colonne Blanche creates a psychological tension that climaxes in a complex mirage of shimmering whites. It is exactly typical of the artist's entirely new visual lexicon, which successfully managed to attain the impalpable and invisible. "The immaterial is the sensory reality of the universe' confessed the artist, for whom art brought 'the sensory knowledge of the immaterial. To become conscious of the immaterial in its state of pure structure is to make the final leap towards the absolute" (the artist cited in: Exhibition Catalogue, Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Rafael Soto, 1969, p. 26). Colonne Blanche is an outstanding example of the artist's groundbreaking kinetic relief constructions that has magnificently incorporated the optical and physical effects of vibration of his best work.
With artists heralding from South America, Eastern Europe and Western Europe, Soto was a leading figure within a movement whose spread and influence was truly global. Non subjective, spontaneous, and with a focus upon intimate engagement with the individual viewer, Op Art witnessed an immediate world resonance and was seen to be the natural counterpoint to Pop Art from which it took its catchy name. Whereas the latter restored the power of the image and its ability to bear witness to the social world, Kinetic art questioned the very physical experience of art, interrogating the traditional fixity of the object, the virtual colour achieved through vibration, and most importantly the notion of duration which was until then the sacred and exclusive attribute of Cinema and Music.