Kinetic artist Jesús Rafael Soto is feted with a duet of retrospectives in Paris and New York

At Emmanuel Perrotin’s Paris gallery, visitors appeared to be lingering around the artworks more than usual. One cannot just stand and stare at Jesús Rafael Soto’s highly technical constructions. 'Pénétrable BBL bleu', a particularly striking example of his work, invites viewers to swish through its baleen-like grid of PVC tubes suspended from a garage-sized metal frame. (And yes, it’s kid friendly.)
The Marais exhibition is the first of two vernissages, both entitled 'Chronochrome', with the second opening in New York tomorrow. Perrotin’s staging of a double Soto retrospective represents a major opportunity to reflect on the artist’s contribution to modern art - specifically the dynamism of his complex and kinetically charged arrangements. The artist, who died in 2005 at the age of 81, added perceptual dimension to his 'paintings' so that wood panels would appear to advance and recede within their frames.
Some pieces, such as 'Cube de Paris' (1990) with its central vortex of red nylon strands, needs a 360-degree perspective; other works, such as the 'Ecriture' series filled with swirling metal reliefs, require shuffling back and forth to experience the vibratory effect. The negative space between the floating prismatic shapes of 'Doble progresión azul y negra' (1975) belies its immense weight (one tonne).
Born in Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela - where an eponymous museum opened in 1973 - Soto moved to Paris in 1950, which also marked his shift towards a distinctly abstract style that furthered ideas developed by Piet Mondrian, Alexander Calder and Lazló Moholy-Nagy. His first retrospective of kinetic art took place 45 years ago and toured several European institutions including the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and Paris' National Museum of Modern Art.
But historian and curator Matthieu Poirier notes how the artist has not received due recognition—at least, not yet. 'Many people are considering this part of history and Soto is the genius of this history,' says Poirier, who first visited the artist at his Paris studio in 2003. Today, that studio houses the archives and also remains an active workshop for his longtime assistant and fellow Venezuelan artist, René Ugarte, who uses parts that Soto presciently left behind to repair any wear and tear.
To wit, Soto's ouevre simply feels fresh. The 'moiré' pattern created by his optical illusions, for instance, is not unlike watching palm fronds rustle in a breeze. But as Poirier explains, all the tricks are in plain sight: 'He wasn’t James Turrell. Turrell is a magician; he’s hiding all the wires. As far as philosophy, Soto was a materialist — no magic. Everything is explainable.”
Of the nearly 60 exhibited works - in some cases, for sale - several have been made available by the artist’s estate, now represented by Perrotin, while others are loans from international museums. In collaboration with Soto’s four children (his wife passed away last year), Poirier engineered the simultaneous shows as 'a whole with two major parts' which are grouped by 'families of procedures and logics' instead of a more obvious linear chronology. 'With Soto,' he says, 'it is not a linear evolution.'
The fact that Soto’s work resists photography might just be the most remarkable takeaway in the Instagram era. While the precise geometries, the restrained colour palette and delineation of two-dimensional space all register well enough, the planes and illusions vanish and the ensuing flatness renders his art into something altogether different. And apropos of the shows’ title, 'Chronochrome', the longer you engage with each piece, the more it comes to life.
'Pénétrable BBL bleu', 1999, invites viewers to swish through its baleen-like grid of PVC tubes suspended from a garage-sized metal frame.
Galerie Perrotin's staging of a double Soto retrospective represents a major opportunity to reflect on the artist’s contribution to modern art - specifically the dynamism of his complex and kinetically charged arrangements.
'Untitled, (Mur bleu)', 1966. Born in Venezuela, Soto moved to Paris in 1950, which also marked his shift towards a distinctly abstract style that furthered ideas developed by Piet Mondrian, Alexander Calder and Lazló Moholy-Nagy.
Detail of 'Untitled, (Mur bleu)', 1966.
'Untitled (Ambivalencia en el espacio color n°12)', 1981.
'Cuadrados en vibración', 1990.
'Color abajo', 1991.
Detail of 'Color abajo', 1991.
Other works, such as 'Columna rosa', 1973, are filled with swirling metal reliefs, require shuffling back and forth to experience the vibratory effect.
Detail of 'Columna rosa', 1973.
Of the nearly 60 exhibited works - in some cases, for sale - several have been made available by the artist’s estate, now represented by gallerist Emmanuel Perrotin...
...while others are loans from international museums. Pictured is 'Tes negras y viola', 1994.
Installation view of the Soto retrospective at Galerie Perrotin New York
'Petite progression rose et blanche', 1976.
Soto added perceptual dimension to his 'paintings' so that wood panels would appear to advance and recede within their frames
Installation view of the Soto retrospective at Galerie Perrotin New York
ADDRESS
Galerie Perrotin Paris
76 Rue de Turenne
75003 Paris
France
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
Daisy Margarita Bar reimagines the Mexican tavern with vaquero flair in Los Angeles
From frozen guacamole margaritas to lamb shank with frijoles puercos, this new Sherman Oaks destination mixes playful gastronomy with tradition
-
The best of California desert architecture, from midcentury gems to mirrored dwellings
While architecture has long employed strategies to cool buildings in arid environments, California desert architecture developed its own distinct identity –giving rise, notably, to a wave of iconic midcentury designs
-
Meet Rural Futurisms, 'agents for catalytic change' in South Africa's landscape design field
Led by Lesego Bantsheng, the collective is challenging conventional ideas of landscape by reimagining how rural communities connect with heritage, ecology and design
-
Yulia Mahr digs beneath the skin in her modern update of classic Greek statues in Paris
In 'The Church of Our Becoming', on view at the Courtyard at Dover Street Market Paris, Yulia Mahr celebrates real human bodies
-
Jean-Michel Othoniel takes over Avignon for his biggest ever exhibition
Originally approached by Avignon to mark their 25th anniversary as the European Capital of Culture, Jean-Michel Othoniel more than rose to the challenge, installing 270 artworks around the city
-
Joel Quayson’s winning work for Dior Beauty at Arles considers the theme ‘Face-to-Face’ – watch it here
Quayson, who has won the 2025 Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award for Young Talents at Arles, imbues his winning work with a raw intimacy
-
What to see at Rencontres d’Arles 2025, questioning power structures in the state and family
Suppressed memories resurface in sharply considered photography at Rencontres d'Arles 2025. Here are some standout photographers to see
-
‘With a small gesture of buying a postcard, we all become copyists’: the Louvre’s celebration of copying speaks to human nature
Contemporary artists are invited to copy works from the Louvre in a celebration of the copyist’s art, a collaboration with Centre Pompidou-Metz
-
Wolfgang Tillmans brings a performative edge to bibliophilia at the Centre Pompidou’s library
As the Centre Pompidou’s library is emptied ahead of the venue’s five-year restoration, the German photographer moves in for a final fling of a Paris exhibition
-
A song for the dead – Josh Homme on performing for six million souls in the bowels of the Paris Catacombs
A rock band, a brush with death and an underground tomb coalesce in haunting new Queens of the Stone Age film, ‘Alive in the Catacombs’. Wallpaper* meets frontman Josh Homme and director Thomas Rames
-
The glory years of the Cannes Film Festival are captured in a new photo book
‘Cannes’ by Derek Ridgers looks back on the photographer's time at the Cannes Film Festival between 1984 and 1996