Jesus Raphael Soto S/N Print, Le Tour Jaune

Artist: Soto, Jesus Raphael
Title: Le Tour Jaune
Year: Circa 1980
Medium: Screenprint
Edition: 150, AP 25
Paper Size: 22" x 30"
 

Energy is one of the most striking elements of Soto's work and his experiments with optical effects are representative of some of the most successful of the Op Art-Kinetic Art movements. Soto's work, however, surpasses the mere exploitation of optical effects and he presents in his paintings a concentration of energy which attain a point where the paintings become a mirage, kinesthetically like a mental tension.

Soto's use of the moire effect plays a prominent role in his early works of transition from the tradition of hard-edge abstraction founded by Modrian to the more fluid expression he presently uses. The influence of Modrian's balancing of lines and composition can be found in Soto's work, with Soto's added touch of a personal search for an art which would be its own master, wholly independent of the natural world, an attitude reflective of Modrian's.

Soto's work with identical and multipliable elements was aimed at reducing the sign to total anonymity, in the effort to get away from subjective art. When the transition to kinetic art came Soto's way in 1955 he began to make plexiglass superimpositions. Spirals traced upon perspex were superimposed in depth. The optical effect that resulted was in the relationship between the surfaces. Soto's painting began to emerge and assume a sculptural dimension when he suspended wire and rods of metal in front of the background. This striping of the background seems to create the effect of attacking and partly absorbing the forms which are placed in front of it. Soto's work established a concrete relationship with the viewers perception as disconcerting and fascinating as a mirage.