Florence Soto, daughter of Jesús Rafael Soto (Ciudad Bolívar, 1923; Paris, 2005), is the person in charge, together with his family, of taking care of the legacy of the Venezuelan artist. «A great challenge and responsibility»recognizes who the last weekend he visited Maó to attend the opening of the exhibition hosted by the Cayón Gallery until next August 29. A retrospective with the work of someone who is considered one of the most important figures in the world. kinetic art.
Next year will be the 20th anniversary of his death. Time passes and his figure, far from being forgotten, continues to grow. «As new generations and the public in various parts of the world discover his work, his proposal is consolidated over time. Her work generates curiosity in young artists and curators who continue studying the principles that guided her creation,” explains Florence.
Soto’s granddaughter and daughter, Sorayane and Florence
Born into a humble family, Soto He managed to make his way as a figure in art by rubbing shoulders with big names during the years he lived in Paris. A trajectory whose evolution his daughter defines as “constant research. “Her workshop was like a laboratory open to her own discoveries and the execution of her proposals throughout her life.”
His phrase “My works are the vision of the movement in themselves” defines the creative process of the Venezuelan artist very well, but it is not the only one, his daughter points out. “Her reflections on her also evoke the importance of our presence in space and the corporeal relationship that makes us part of his works, as she revealed in a phrase during a conversation with the art critic Jean Clay in 1968,” she relates Florence.
The of the Cayón gallery is one of the most ambitious exhibitions dedicated to the figure of Soto in recent years. A collection that includes just over 40 works and covers the creator’s work between 1951 and 2004. “Except for the integrations into architecture and virtual volumes, the exhibition includes a representative sample of almost all the families of works proposed by Soto,” explains her daughter.
The ‘Penetrables’, pieces activated by the visitor’s movement generating a kinetic illusion, are undoubtedly one of Soto’s most characteristic works. A proposal that speaks quite clearly of the relationship that the artist sought with the viewer, “that of making him feel the density of space,” concludes Florence.
