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PEOPLE & ARTS Monday 29 July 2019
Cruz-Diez, Venezuelan pioneer of kinetic art, dies in Paris

By JORGE RUEDA Americans, one feels mar-
CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA ginalized, the world of art
Associated Press was always distant for us,"
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) Cruz-Diez told the AP in an-
— Carlos Cruz-Diez, a lead- other interview in 2009.
ing Venezuelan artist who Latin America was in a
won international acclaim state of "cultural depen-
for his work with color and dence" early in his career,
the style known as kinetic he said.
art, has died in Paris. He "We went to Europe to look
was 95. for information. Impression-
"Your love, your joy, your ism and other movements
teachings and your colors, reached us 30 or 40 years
will remain forever in our late," he said.
hearts," said a family state- Cruz-Diez was born in Ca-
ment posted on Cruz-Diez's racas on Aug. 17, 1923 and
art foundation website. It his work was incorporated
did not give a cause of his into the city as it expanded
death on Saturday and with the help of Venezu-
said funeral services will be In this Sept. 10, 2008, file photo, Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz-Diez talks about his Physichromie ela's booming oil industry,
private. no. 500 in New York. starting in the 1970s. His
Cruz-Diez developed a Associated Press stunning, chromatic work
reputation as one of Latin on the floor of the interna-
America's most prominent and moved to Paris two teaching and eventually "Art always inspired me. But tional airport was unveiled
artists in the second half of years later to pursue art. He becoming a French citizen in my youth, and I think this at a time when the building
the 20th century. His instal- made his home in France, in 2008. happens to a lot of Latin was an icon of modernity.q
lations have been featured
in major international art
museums and public spac-
es. His work has recently
been on display in exhibi-
tions in Paris, London, Saudi
Arabia and Panama, his
website said.
"Nobody understood the
mystery of color like him,"
Venezuelan writer Leonar-
do Padrón said on Twitter.
"Your work transcended
barriers and filled us with
pride as Venezuelans," said
opposition leader Juan
Guaidó, who is in a pow-
er struggle with President
Nicolás Maduro as the
country endures a humani-
tarian crisis.
"I'm not from the past, I'm
from today," Cruz-Diez said
in an interview with The As-
sociated Press in New York
in 2008.
He said he defined himself
as an "explorer."
Cruz-Diez explored "the am-
biguity of color," sometimes
creating art with transpar-
ent strips of material that fil-
tered light and showed dif-
ferent color combinations
to viewers moving around
his artwork, his website said.
Cruz-Diez studied art in Ca-
racas and, after graduat-
ing, worked as an artistic
director for the U.S. adver-
tising agency then known
as McCann Erickson and
illustrator for Venezuela's El
Nacional newspaper.
In 1957, he founded a vi-
sual arts school in Caracas