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. |