Jesus Rafael Soto

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Jesus Rafael Soto

Venezuelan, 1923 - 2005

BiographyJesús Rafael Soto was born in Ciudad Bolivar in 1923. At the age of 16,
he began painting posters for cinemas in Ciudad Bolivar as a way to
earn additional income to support his family. It was around the same
time, however, that Soto became involved with a local Surrealist group.
He began to experiment with drawing and started to publish avant-garde
poetry. His talents earn him a scholarship to study art at the Escuela de
Artes Plásticas y Artes Aplicadas in Caracas in 1942. After graduating
in 1947, Soto began teaching at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de
Maracaibo. While there, he received a grant to travel to France, moving
to Paris in 1950, an event that would ultimately shape his practice in
significant ways. It was in Paris where Soto first began exploring op-art.
He participated in Le Mouvement (Paris 1955), an exhibition credited as
launching the Kinetic Art movement. In the decades that followed, Soto
would continue to explore optical illusion through an engagement with
kinetic, immersive, installation, and interactive art–critically advancing
all of these practices within Venezuela and globally.
Throughout his lifetime, Soto received numerous awards and
distinctions. In 1960, he received the Venezuelan National Painting
Prize, was awarded the David E. Bright Foundation Award at the XXXII
Venice Biennale in 1964, was honored with the Venezuelan National
Plastic Arts Award in 1984, was made Commander in the Ordre des
Arts et des Lettres in 1993, and won the French Grand Prix National de
Sculpture in 1995.
In 1973 the Museo de arte moderno Jesús Soto opened in his birth city
of Ciudad. The museum houses critical works by Soto along with works
by international avant-garde artists he admired, including Jean Arp,
Kazimir Malevich, and Man Ray. The permanent collection consists of
the work of major abstract-constructivist, kinetic and new realist artists,
from Venezuela and abroad.
Soto’s work can be found in museums in Venezuela, the United States,
Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Chile, Cuba, Egypt, England,
Works of Art for Consideration Toledo Museum of Art
Japan, France, Mexico, Denmark, inter alia. These include the National
Gallery of Australia, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Museu de Arte
Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, Musée d’Art
Contemporain de Montréal, Musée National d’Art Moderne Centre
Georges Pompidou, Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Museo
de Arte Moderno La Tertulia, Casa de las Américas, Fundación Galería
de Arte Nacional, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas, Museo de
Bellas Artes Caracas, Museo de Arte Moderno Jesús Soto, Museo de
Arte Moderno de Mérida Juan Astorga Anta, Louisiana Museum of
Modern Art, Universal Graphic Museum, Tate Gallery, Museum of
Modern Art, Hokkaido, Museo Rufino Tamayo, the Guggenheim Abu-
Dhabi, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Norton Museum of Art,
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art, New York,
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Oklahoma City Art Museum,
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Los Angeles County
Museum, and the Yuz Foundation.
[Compiled and adapted from the artist’s website, https://jesus-soto.com/;
the Guggenheim, https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/jesusrafael-
soto; and ArtStory, https://www.theartstory.org/artist/soto-jesusrafael/]

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