Jesús 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/]