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Curriculum Vitae

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Biography

 

1923   Born on August 17th in Caracas, Venezuela.
1940   He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Caracas, where he obtained the diploma of professor in Applied Arts,
1944   Worked as illustrator for the publication El Farol of the Creole Petroleum Corporation, as well as for other magazines such as La Esfera and Élite,
1944   He made comics for various newspapers,
1946   Creative director of advertising agency McCann-Erickson, Venezuela.
1947   He travelled to New York for an advertising training course,
1947   He held his first personal exhibition “12 gouaches de Carlos Cruz- Diez” at the Instituto Venezolano-Americano in Caracas,
1953   Illustrator for El Nacional newspaper,
1955   Settled for a year and a half in El Masnou, Barcelona, Spain.
1955   He travelled to Paris and saw the works that were exhibited at the exhibition “Le Mouvement” at the Galerie Denise René,
1956   He exhibited at the Galería Buchholz in Madrid where he presented the series Parénquimas and Objetos Rítmicos Móviles,
1957   He founded the Estudio de Artes Visuales [Visual Arts Studio] for graphic and industrial design in Caracas,
1959   He created his first Couleur Additive and Physichromie,
1960   Settled permanently in Paris with his family,
1961   He participated at the exhibition “Bewogen Beweging” at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
1965   He participated at the exhibition “The Responsive Eye”, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York,
1965   Venezuela’s general curator at the IV Biennale de Paris. He exhibits works by Alirio Rodríguez, Edgar Guinand and Carlos Prada,
1969   He featured Labyrinthe de Chromosaturation on the boulevard Saint-Germain in Paris,
1970   Personal exhibition at the XXXV Venice Biennale, Venezuelan Pavilion, Venice, Italy.
1989   He published his book “Reflexión sobre el color” in Caracas,
2007   Honorary Member of the Venezuelan Academy of Language, Caracas,
2009   He published the second edition in Spanish and English of his book “Reflexión sobre el color” in Madrid,
2011   He inaugurated his most important retrospective exhibition “Carlos Cruz-Diez. Color in Space and Time”, at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), United States.
2012   Rank of Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honor, Paris,
2014   He published his memoirs “Vivir en Arte, recuerdos de lo que me acuerdo” in Paris,
2019   Died in Paris on July 27, at the age of 95

 

Personal Exhibitions

 

1956   Carlos Cruz-Diez, Galería Buchholz, Madrid, Spain.
1960   Fisicromías de Cruz-Diez, Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela.
1965   A Decade of Physichromies by Carlos Cruz-Diez, Signals London, London, United Kingdom.
1969   Cruz-Diez. Cinq propositions sur la couleur, Galerie Denise René - Rue la Boétie, Paris, France.
1970   35th Venice Biennial, Venezuelan Pavilion, Venice, Italy.
1974   Carlos Cruz-Diez, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Sofía Imber - Sala Cadafe, Caracas, Venezuela.
1981   Cruz-Diez. Didáctica y dialéctica del color. Intervenciones en la arquitectura. Inducciones cromáticas, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Sofía Imber - Sala Cadafe - Sala Ipostel, Caracas, Venezuela.
1988   Carlos Cruz-Diez. Die Autonomie der Farbe. Bilders - Plastiken - Objekte aus den Jahren, 1959-1988, Josef Albers Museum Quadrat Bottrop, Moderne Galerie, Bottrop, Germany.
1998   Carlos Cruz-Diez “...und gebe dem Raum die Farbe”, Städtisches Museum Gelsenkirchen, Gelsenkirchen-Buer, Germany.
2008   Carlos Cruz-Diez. (In)Formed by Color, Americas Society/Council of the Americas, New York, United States.
2010   Carlos Cruz-Diez. The Embodied Experience of Color, Miami Art Museum, Miami, United States.
2011   Carlos Cruz-Diez. Color in Space and Time, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Houston, United States.
2011   Carlos Cruz-Diez. El color en el espacio y en el tiempo, Museo de Art Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) - Fundación Costantini, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2012   Cruz-Diez. A cor no espaço e no tempo, Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo, Brazil.
2012   Carlos Cruz-Diez. El color en el espacio y en el tiempo, Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Mexico City, Mexico.
2013   Carlos Cruz-Diez. Circumstance and Ambiguity of Color, Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Beijing, China.
2014   Cruz-Diez. Color espacial, Centro Niemeyer, Avilés, Spain.
2015   Carlos Cruz-Diez. Didaktik und Dialektik der Farbe, Das Kleine Museum, Weissenstadt, Germany.
2016   Carlos Cruz-Diez. Un être flottant, Galerie Mitterrand, Paris, France.
2017   Chroma, Untitled Art Fair, Miami Beach, United States.
2017   Carlos Cruz-Diez. Mastering Colour, Puerta Roja Gallery, Hong Kong, China.
2017   Chroma, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, United States. Exhibition awarded with the "Best of Year" award from the magazine "Interior Design".
2018   Carlos Cruz-Diez. Color in Motion, Museum für Concrete Kunst, Ingolstadt, Germany.
2019   Color in Space, Crita Gallery, Seoul, South Korea.
2019   Carlos Cruz-Diez. Labyrinthus, La Patinoire Royale, Galerie Valérie Bach, Brussels, Belgium.

 

Collective Exhibitions

 

1961   Bewogen Beweging, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
1964   Nouvelle Tendance. Propositions visuelles du mouvement international, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Palais du Louvre, Pavillon de Marsan, Paris, France.
1965   The Responsive Eye, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, United States.
1967   Lumière et mouvement, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France.
1985   Forty years of Modern Art 1945-1985, Tate Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
1992   L'art en mouvement, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul- de-Vence, France.
1993   Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century, Museum of Modern Art, New York, United States.
2001   Denise René, l’intrépide. Une galerie dans l’aventure de l’art abstrait, 1944-1978, Centre Pompidou, Galerie d’Art Graphique and Galerie du Musée, Paris, France.
2004   Inverted Utopias. Avant-Garde Art in Latin America, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Houston, United States.
2007   Lo[s] cinético[s], Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain.
2010   Suprasensorial. Experiments in Light, Color and Space, The Geffen Contemporary at The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, United States.
2011   América fría. La abstracción geométrica latinoamericana (1934 - 1973), Fundación Juan March, Madrid, Spain.
2012   Suprasensorial. Experiments in Light, Color, and Space, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., United States.
2013   Dynamo. Un siècle de lumière et de mouvement dans l’art. 1913-2013, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, France.
2013   Light Show, Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
2014   Formes simples, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France.
2015   An Imagined Museum. Works from the Centre Pompidou, Tate and MMK collections, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
2015   Let's Move, La Patinoire Royale, Brussels, Belgium.
2016   The Illusive Eye. Op Art and the Americas in the 1960s, El Museo del Barrio, New York, United States.
2016   Eye Attack. Op Art and Kinetic Art 1950-1970, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark.
2016   In the Studio, Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom.
2016   Un musée imaginé. Et si l’art disparaissait ? Trois collections européennes. Centre Pompidou, Tate, MMK, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France.
2016   Das imaginäre Museum / An Imagined Museum. Works from the Centre Pompidou, Tate and MMK collections, Museum für Moderne Kunst - MMK2, Frankfurt, Germany.
2016   Split. Spiegel, Licht, Reflexio, Schauwerk Sindelfingen, Sindelfingen, Germany.
2017   L’emozione dei COLORI nell’arte, GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin, Italy.
2018   The Other Trans-Atlantic. Kinetic and Op Art in Eastern Europe and Latin America 1950’s 1970s, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia.
2018   Action, Reaction. 100 Years of Kinetic Art, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
2018   Concrete Matters, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden.
2018   Signals, Sotheby’s Gallery S2, London, United Kingdom.
2018   Obres obertes. L’art en moviment, 1955-1975, Fundació Catalunya - La Pedrera, Barcelona, Spain.
2019   La révolution permanente. OEuvres optiques et cinétiques. Collection du Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Fondation Vasarely, Aix-en-Provence, France.
2019   Le diable au corps. Quand l’Op Art électrise le cinéma, Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain (MAMAC), Nice, France.
2019   Vertigo. Op Art and a History and Deception 1520-1970, Museum moderner kunst stiftung ludwig wien (MUMOK), Vienna, Austria.

 

Integrated Architectural Works

 

1974   Ambientación de Color Aditivo, Simón Bolívar International Airport, Maiquetia, Venezuela. Floor and wall of Couleur Additive in the airport’s main hall. Dim. 270 x 9 m (886 x 30 ft) (295 1/4 x 9 27/32 yd). Walkway. Dim. 9 x 30 m (9 27/32 x 32 13/16 yd). Metallic wall. Dim. 5.25 x 9 m (5 3/4 x 9 27/32 yd). Architect: Felipe Montemayor, Luis Sully.
1975   Environnement chromatique, Union de Banques Suisses headquarters (UBS), Flurpark SBG, Zürich, Switzerland. Global intervention inside the building. Architect: Fred A. Widmer, Reinhard Widmer.
1976   Physichromie double face, Place du Venezuela, Paris, France. 3 x 18 m double-sided (10 x 59 ft). Architect: Tony Blanco Navarro.
1977   Ambientación Cromática, Simón Bolívar Hydroelectric Plant, Guri, Venezuela. Global intervention inside the building. Hall n°1: 26 x 260 x 23 m (85 x 853 x 75 ft); Hall n° 2: 28 x 300 x 26 m (92 x 984 x 85 ft). Engineer: Herman Roo, Argenis Gamboa, Efraín Carrera, Gerardo Chavarri.
1982   Cromoestructura radial - Homenaje al Sol, roundabout Las Trinitarias, Barquisimeto, Venezuela. 32 steel elements of 3 x 15 m each (10 x 49 ft), 80 m circle (262 ft). Engineer: Alfred Pappe, Jaime Domínguez, Alexander Potyka, Estanislao Potyka, Iván Faroh.
1991   Fisicromía para Madrid, Parque Juan Carlos I, Madrid, Spain. 2 x 40 m (6 1/2 x 131 ft). Engineer: Miguel Angel Moreno, Emilio Baños.
1991   Fisicromía para Andorra, Spain’s border, Sant Julià de Lòria, Andorra. 1,50 x 24 m (5 x 79 ft).
2007   Ambientación Cromática, Centro Nacional de Acción Social por la Música - Sala Simón Bolivar, Sistema Nacional de Orquestas Juveniles e Infantiles de Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela. Couleur Additive displayed throughout the 1500-seat concert hall and on the backdrop; Induction Chromatique à double fréquence floor of 550 m2 (1 804 sq. ft). Architect: Tomás Lugo.
2011   Chromatic Induction in a Double Frequency, Walkways at the Marlins Ballpark Stadium, Miami, United States. 1 672 m2 (5 485 sq. ft).
2014   Environnement Chromatique, One CityCenter’s Covington & Burling LLP hall building, Washington, D.C., United States. Two Physichromies of 370 x 305 cm (145 x 120 in) and 461 x 380 cm (181 x 150 in) and one Transchromie in 13 sections for a total length of 34,6 m (113 ft). Architect: Debra Lehman-Smith (LSM).
2014   Physichromie Berrini One, Berrini One Building, São Paulo, Brazil. 3 x 58 m (10 x 190 ft). Architect: Aflalo / Gasperini.
2014   Cromovela, Cinta Costera III, Panama, Republic of Panama. 11 m (36 ft).
2015   Cromoestructura, Kenex Plaza Building, Panama, Republic of Panama. North Facade: 9,36 x 42,5 m (31 x 139 ft); West Facade: 9,36 x 36,25 m (31 x 119 ft).
2016   Physichromie Longchamp, Boutique Longchamp, Paris, France. 460 x 220 cm (181 x 87 in).
2016   Vitraux de soustraction chromatique, Auditorium of the former Observantin's Church, Manosque, France. 260 x 100 cm. Architect: F. Flavigny
2017   Cromoestructura Smithsonian, Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales, Panama, Republic of Panama. 2,5 x 60 x 0,12 m.
2018   Induction Chromatique Human Rights, Miami Dade College, Miami, United States. 720 x 740 cm.

 

Honors and Awards

 

1966   Grand Prize, III Bienal Americana de Arte, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Faculty of Science, Córdoba, Argentina.
1967   International Painting Prize, IX Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
1971   National Art Award, Instituto Nacional de Cultura y Bellas Artes (INCIBA), Caracas, Venezuela.
1981   Order Andrés Bello, First Class, Caracas, Venezuela.
1986   Rank of Officer, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Paris, France.
1992   Gold Medal, Norwegian International Print Triennale, Oslo, Norway.
1994   Rank of Commander, Orden Heráldica Cristóbal Colón, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
2002   Rank of Commandeur, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Paris, France.
2006   Honorary Doctorate, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas, Venezuela.
2007   Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela.
2011   Golden Medal, Americas Society/Council of the Americas, New York, United States.
2012   Premio Penagos de Dibujo, Fundación Mapfre, Madrid, Spain.
2012   Rank of Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honor, Paris, France.
2014   Doctor Honoris Causa, Universidad Central, Caracas, Venezuela.
2015   Turner Medal, City University, London, United Kingdom.
2016   The International Trebbia Award, Trebbia Foundation, Prague, Czech Republic.
2017   SCAD deFINE ART honoree, Trustees Theater, SCAD University, Savannah, United States.

 

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