Carlos Cruz-Diez

(Caracas, 1923 - Paris, 2019)

Physichromie n.º 763

1974

silkscreen and acetate slats on aluminium

50 x 50 cm

Inv. no. P00202

BBVA Collection Spain



Apart from being one of the main exponents of Kinetic Art from Venezuela, Cruz-Diez is a colour theorist who examined the unstable nature of colour in his Reflection on Colour. Closely observing his works—predicated on colour and movement—always produces a unique experience which each beholder perceives in a highly personal and different way. In this way, his projects pursue an interaction with the beholder who thus becomes an active participant in the work.

Cruz-Diez’s vision is predicated on eight lines of research that bring to the fore the various ways in which colour behaves: Couleur Additive, Physichromie, Induction Chromatique, Chromointerférence Transchromie, Chromosaturation, Chromoscope andCouleur dans l’espace.

The holdings of the BBVA Collection include two pieces belonging to a series called Physichromie—a term allusive to the notion of physical colour—which the artist began in 1959. This body of work is grounded in Cruz-Diez’s aspiration to reinvent painting and to create an art object conceived as an event in constant transformation. This work, created in 1973, is a germane example, configured using an aluminium laminated structure painted with acrylic dyes, on which he has placed acetate strips acting as modulators of light and of the vision of colour, making the colours appear and vanish from the spectator’s sight depending on his movement, and allowing the beholder to appreciate the infinite range of colours.