Jesús Rafael Soto (1923-2005)

The Collection of Silvia Boulton, Caracas
Acquired from the above
Private Collection, New York

This work is in very good condition taking its age into account. The wire and metal elements are accounted for and secure. Some mild wear is apparent in the extreme edges and corners. There is fine craquelure throughout the back panel; but the media layer is healthy and stable. The work is ready to hang.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Claude-Louis Rénard: For me, the works that you executed between 1962 and 1967, Immaterial Curves, with their identical horizontal metal rods suspended on nylon wires in front of a uniformly hatched surface, Vibrating Squares, Suspended Parallel Rods, stand as milestones in the stages of your development, now reaching definitive perfection. […/..] Certain works, in terms of my own preferences, occupy a place apart; I have a special feeling for the series you call Escrituras (Writings). In one sense, I think they can be read as a very definite return to the direct line traced by the artist’s hand, […/..] these exist as a more immediate transcription of your personal sensibility, as though you have allowed your hand, more or less consciously, to act with greater freedom…

Jesús Rafael Soto: That’s possible. For me, the Writings are a way of drawing in space. Cruz-Diez, one of my teachers, referring to an early version of Writings, said: “This is your language; [these are] the same signs you were making when you were trying to go beyond Mondrian.”

And it was true. I just had never thought of it that way. I was using the same curves I had used in drawing my early landscapes (Fig 1). Had I been a painter in the 18^th century, it’s perfectly possible that instinctively, my hand would have drawn the same lines. Perhaps… but even within this freedom, I still continue to retain a structure and to control the elements within it. I have always continued to work in the same direction, and the Escrituras appear intermittently between my more rigorous and controlled experiments.

Soto: A Retrospective Exhibition, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, ”Excerpts from an Interview with Soto,” Claude-Louis Rénard, Paris, 1974. p. 17

(Fig. 1) Jesús Rafael Soto, Paisaje (1949)
Private Collection, N.Y.