Published 15/08/2022
Cruz-Diez was a member of the Op Art movement whose work focuses on the kinetic energy of colour. He believed Op Art was ''a movement that continuously depicts the instabilities of reality''.
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During his career, Carlos Cruz-Diez used diverse methods to highlight colour in his works, yet at the age of 80, he shifted his approach and began using computers to further his research. Today, he remains one of the most influential and innovative artists of the 20th century, while his research on colour continues to be passed on to younger generations through educational programmes at the Cruz-Diez Art Foundation.
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In 2021, we spoke to Adriana Cruz Delgado, daughter of Carlos Cruz-Diez and President of the Cruz-Diez Art Foundation. The foundation has recently added over 60 new images to the Bridgeman Images archive.
'From a very young age, my father wanted to be an artist, a painter. He was almost 17 years old when his father enrolled him at the School of Fine Arts in Caracas, Venezuela, but warned him that it was a serious profession and great responsibility. There he received academic training and was told at school that artists were witnesses of their time. As he was worried about the situation in his country, he thought it was his duty to paint what he saw around him, poverty and social distress, as an effort to raise awareness and influence social change. But, he was soon disenchanted with this idea because the positive results were only to himself; he was selling his works rather well, but there was no less poverty around him, there was no real change.'
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'So he decided to continue exploring new ideas and focused on what he really loved about painting, which was simply applying colour. Among all the things in art that he could explore, he decided to focus on colour. So he studied all he could, either philosophical, physical, artistic, or even theoretical, and discovered he could contribute something new to it. This led him to Europe, where he discovered other revolutionary ideas that encouraged his exploration of colour as an autonomous reality.'
Read the full interview with the Carlos Cruz-Diez Estate here
Cruz-Diez's works have been showcased at the MoMa, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Latin American Art, The Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas, and others, as well as in independent galleries all over the world.
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Finally, if you want to register or connect to our site, you will be able to access several additional tools, including being able to download images and videos faster.17th August 2023 marks 100 years since the birth of Venezuelan Artist Carlos Cruz Diez.
Cruz-Diez was a member of the Op Art movement whose work focuses on the kinetic energy of colour. He believed Op Art was ''a movement that continuously depicts the instabilities of reality''.
During his career, Carlos Cruz-Diez used diverse methods to highlight colour in his works, yet at the age of 80, he shifted his approach and began using computers to further his research. Today, he remains one of the most influential and innovative artists of the 20th century, while his research on colour continues to be passed on to younger generations through educational programmes at the Cruz-Diez Art Foundation.
In 2021, we spoke to Adriana Cruz Delgado, daughter of Carlos Cruz-Diez and President of the Cruz-Diez Art Foundation. The foundation has recently added over 60 new images to the Bridgeman Images archive.
'From a very young age, my father wanted to be an artist, a painter. He was almost 17 years old when his father enrolled him at the School of Fine Arts in Caracas, Venezuela, but warned him that it was a serious profession and great responsibility. There he received academic training and was told at school that artists were witnesses of their time. As he was worried about the situation in his country, he thought it was his duty to paint what he saw around him, poverty and social distress, as an effort to raise awareness and influence social change. But, he was soon disenchanted with this idea because the positive results were only to himself; he was selling his works rather well, but there was no less poverty around him, there was no real change.'
'So he decided to continue exploring new ideas and focused on what he really loved about painting, which was simply applying colour. Among all the things in art that he could explore, he decided to focus on colour. So he studied all he could, either philosophical, physical, artistic, or even theoretical, and discovered he could contribute something new to it. This led him to Europe, where he discovered other revolutionary ideas that encouraged his exploration of colour as an autonomous reality.'
Read the full interview with the Carlos Cruz-Diez Estate here
Cruz-Diez's works have been showcased at the MoMa, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Latin American Art, The Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas, and others, as well as in independent galleries all over the world.
