Carlos Cruz Diez

This first exhibition was so successful that it was then presented as a travelling exhibition in different countries, with the aim of allowing the viewer to have access, in a comprehensible and simple way, to the artist’s codes. In this exhibition he explains his studies of physics on the theories of Young, Goethe, Newton, Chevreul’s treaty, Albers’ researches, and of course, going through the Impressionist painters. Cruz-Diez has always been obsessed with educating the public. This has been a policy in his life. It has allowed the layman to learn about these codes through the reading of his work, and to feel identified with his oeuvre. And it has also allowed people, in the case of the chromosaturations, the viewers –as is also the case with Soto’s penetrables – to “ introduce themselves” into the work, so that they become involved with the pieces and as a result, they become immediately identified with the works and the artists.

Thirty-four years later, this exhibition is held once again, this time at the Casa de la Hacienda La Trinidad (HLTPC) in Caracas, this time in a cultural alliance CCD-USB-HLTPC. Once again the artist presents his didactic exhibition, with the aim of bringing his work close to the new generations.

It comprises forty seven pieces that contribute to understand the master’s work, ranging from his first experiences to the physichromies. We quote a paragraph by the artist in the catalog of the exhibition of 1980, which in our opinion, still applies today: “ My purpose has always been that of a painter and as such, I view the world that surrounds me. I try to grasp in all things that which may be used in art. Like all painters of my generation I am the direct son of Impressionism, of Cubism, of Fauvism, of Constructivism, which represented pictorial concerns, postulates and definitions and offered solutions from the painter to painting. I speak about these things because there is a generalized tendency to confuse the world of ideas with the world of art. Painting is performed by artists with ideas of their own from the world of narration and of literature in general, a consequence of Dadaism and Surrealism. These movements, which in the beginning aroused a renovating spirit of art, have contributed, over time, to making many painters forget their commitment as painters and that of revolutionizing painting”.

Undoubtedly, Carlos Cruz-Diez is a master of painting. At the age of 91 he is still as fresh and as curious as a child. An exceptional being that transmits joy. This exhibition, contained within the oasis which is Hacienda La Trinidad, allows us to approach the color theories of the master of kinetic art.