Jesús Rafael Soto

Kootz Gallery, New York
Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above circa 1965)
Thence by descent to the present owner

The panel is in very good condition considering its age. The painted panel exhibits an aged surface that is tightly bound. The white panel displays hairline fissures in the wood below the paint layer, which are stable that resulted from dimensional movement in the wood. Surface soiling is evident on the white painted panel. The metal band is well secured to the panel and presents an aged appearance. The black and the pinstripe panels are in very good condition. The panel is structurally sound. (This condition report has been prepared courtesy of Wilson Conservation, LLC)
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

"In the beginning [of the abstract art movement] there was Mondrian. When Mondrian died modern art found itself back in a great desert of possibilities. That is the story of Soto.” Jean Clay, 1965

Regarded as one of the founding fathers of Kinetic art, Venezuelan-born Jesús Rafael Soto left for Paris in 1950 at the age of 27 to further his artistic career. Permanently entrenching himself in the artistic capital, Soto found himself collaborating with ZERO artists Yves Klein, Pol Bury, Jean Tinguely, amongst others—sharing their ambition of redefining the trajectory of art in the post-World War II period. By the mid-1950s, he began exhibiting his investigations of vibrational movement with Galerie Denise René. Inspired by the works of Kazimir Malevich (White on White, 1918) and Piet Mondrian (Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942-43), Soto quickly identified unresolved problems in these two respective paintings. This question would become the central focus and inspiration of his entire artistic production: what is an object’s position in time and space. Soto’s ultimate solution was and still is the brilliant and essential coup of Kinetic art. By using squares—which he considers “the most genuine human form”, superimposed upon a careful landscape of sequential lines, Soto achieves a revolutionary optical illusion of a vibrational and moving state.

Although seemingly simplistic, Ligne et point sur le cercle (1965), represents one of Soto’s most ambitious and intimate uses of the square. Advancing beyond the bare geometry and the single-dimensions of his predecessors, Soto uses this work as an invitation to reintroduce us, the viewers, to the realities of space and movement in a new, multi-dimensional format. His masterful, optical trick and solution becomes clear in Ligne et point sur le cercle: multiple, new planes of vision are invented by the eye of the viewer. At a close range, the small green square, painted at the end of a metallic bar, appears to be boldly suspended on its own against the endlessly vibrating movement of the black and white lines in the background. As we stand back, we actually see this small square superimposed against a cascade of larger squares and a singular circle; endless possibilities and movement result.