Le Mouvement 1955
October 1, 2024 - January 24, 2025
Yaacov Agam (Israel, b. 1928)
Yaacov Agam was the son of Rabbi and kabbalist Yehoshua Gibstein. He studied at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem under Mordecai Ardon before moving to Zurich in 1946 and later to Paris. In Zurich, Agam encountered Bauhaus ideas and was deeply influenced by Vasily Kandinsky’s Über das Geistige in der Kunst, which championed abstraction. In Paris, he continued his studies at the Atelier d'art abstrait and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière.
Agam's first solo exhibition, Peintures en Mouvement (Paintings in Movement), took place at the Galerie Craven in Paris in 1953. It featured two innovative series. The first consisted of painted grids on strips with different designs on opposite sides, creating dynamic images that shifted as viewers moved (a precursor to his famed Agamographs). The second series, Transformable Pictures (1953–61), allowed viewers to rearrange the visual elements manually. Although not the first Optical-Kinetic artist, Agam stood out by actively inviting spectator participation, a novel approach at the time. In 1955, he exhibited alongside pioneers of Kinetic art in the landmark Le Mouvement exhibition at Galerie Denise René.
Agam continued to explore abstraction through kinetic works incorporating light, sound, and viewer interaction. His large-scale public commissions further demonstrated his innovative approach to art. One notable project was the moving salon environment he designed for the Elysée Palace in Paris in 1972. This immersive space featured walls covered in lenticular imagery, transparent doors, and a kinetic carpet, all of which transformed with the viewer’s position. Through his abstract, participatory art, Agam redefined the relationship between artist, artwork, and audience, becoming a leading figure in Kinetic art. His works, which merge technology, movement, and sensory engagement, have left a lasting mark on contemporary art.
Carmelo Arden Quin (Uruguay, b.1913 – France, d. 2010)
Carmelo Arden Quin was one of the founding members of Grupo Madí. In 1932, Carmelo Arden Quin began studying painting and art history under the Catalan writer and painter Emilio Sans. In 1935, he met Joaquín Torres-García, and in 1938, he moved to Buenos Aires to study philosophy and law. He collaborated with a group of avant-garde writers and painters on the journal Sinesia and, in 1942, co-founded the bi-monthly publication El Universitario with poets Gedo Lommi and Edgard Bayley. The following year, he joined Bayley, Gyula Kosice, Tomás Maldonado, and Lidy Prati in forming the Arturo group. Later, he became a founding member of both Arte Concreto-Invención and the Madí movement, playing an influential role in developing Madí ideas alongside Kosice and others.
In Paris, he exhibited at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles from 1949 to 1956. In Buenos Aires in 1956, he co-founded the Association of New Art. He was featured in the "Arte Concreto-Invención - Arte Madí" exhibition in Zurich in 1991 and in various exhibitions of Latin American art, including Artistas Latinoamericanos del Siglo XX, which began in Seville in 1992 and then traveled to the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (1992-1993), the Museum Ludwig in Cologne (1993), and the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1993). He also participated in the Argentina 1920-1994 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford in 1994.
Martha Boto (Argentina, b.1925- France, d. 2004)
Martha Boto was co-founder of the Group of Non-Figurative Artists of Argentina. Abstraction and geometry are at the core of Boto’s work. She was a key member of the kinetic art movement both in the Latin American and in the global context, participating in exhibitions and pushing the boundaries of geometry and abstraction everywhere. Her work and research focused on the optical variations of light and color, often juxtaposing static and mobile reliefs. Working with different mediums and materials, she has pioneered the ways in which we experience light physically and intellectually. Inspired by her personal fascination with the cosmos, Boto brought a futuristic vision to her art, constantly experimenting to test the relationships between light, movement, space, time and color.
Boto’s work influenced not only the visual arts but science, literature and technology, as well. Her work, often described as science fiction, furthered the notion that these fields could intersect. Boto’s career began in Argentina, where she joined the country’s first abstract art movements and worked mostly on painting. She later founded the research and art collective Artistas No Figurativos de la Argentina in 1957 and shortly after she moved to Paris and took part in the first Biennale of Paris in 1960. Upon her arrival in Paris, she began experimenting heavily with kinetics, adding motors and lights to her sculptural practice, resulting on her first Kinetic Light Boxes. In the 1970’s, however, Boto returned to painting. Throughout her life, her art always pushed boundaries and tested the intersections of different fields as she allowed her creativity to lead the way.
Robert Breer (USA, b. 1926 – d. 2011)
Robert Breer spent fifty years creating a distinctive body of work that defied conventional genres and challenged notions of space and time. Originally a painter, Breer’s early geometric abstractions, inspired by Mondrian, transitioned into kinetic objects and experimental animations. After studying engineering at Stanford, he shifted to art, earning his degree in 1949 and moving to Paris, where he exhibited large geometric paintings at the Denise René Gallery. His work featured in the influential Le Mouvement exhibition in 1955, reflecting his interest in integrating motion into static art forms. Breer’s innovative films abandoned narrative sequences and anthropomorphic forms, instead bombarding viewers with abstract shapes, wiggling lines, and live-action images that appeared and disappeared with dazzling speed. These works, which he described as "assault and battery on the retina," drew from his influences in Dadaism and Russian Constructivism. In a 1971 interview, he remarked that his creative process relied on embracing accidents to achieve a sense of amazement. His animated films and flip books, rooted in his paintings, became seminal contributions to the American avant-garde cinema movement of the 1950s, where he collaborated with filmmakers like Stan Brakhage and Jonas Mekas.
Returning to the U.S. in 1959, Breer connected with Pop artists and pioneers of multimedia art, including Claes Oldenburg and participants in happenings and performance art. His collaborations extended to engineering innovations; he worked with Billy Klüver and Experiments in Art and Technology, creating motorized "Floats" for the Pepsi Pavilion at Expo ’70 in Osaka, Japan. These dome-shaped sculptures moved almost imperceptibly, following unpredictable paths. Breer taught film at Cooper Union in Manhattan for 30 years, influencing generations of artists. His works, blending rigorous exploration and whimsical spontaneity, continually questioned the stability of reality. Through his kinetic sculptures and films, Breer redefined movement in art, leaving an indelible mark on 20th-century avant-garde and experimental practices.
Pol Bury (Belgium, b. 1922 – France, d. 2005)
Pol Bury studied at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Mons (1938–39) and initially joined a group of Surrealist poets. Influenced by René Magritte and Yves Tanguy, his early paintings were included in the 1945 Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme in Brussels. Reflecting on his early fascination with Surrealism, Bury later remarked, “It was the total stance of the Surrealist movement which fascinated me.” A transformative moment in Bury’s career came in 1952, when he encountered Alexander Calder’s mobiles. The dynamic movement of Calder’s works inspired Bury to explore kinetic art. By 1955, his own moving sculptures were exhibited in the seminal Le Mouvement exhibition at Galerie Denise René in Paris, which profoundly influenced the international ZERO network. Bury became an active participant in ZERO exhibitions and contributed to Heinz Mack and Otto Piene’s ZERO journal.
In 1957, Bury incorporated electric motors into his sculptures, creating pieces where concealed mechanisms caused elements to twist, tilt, or spin. These works reflected his fascination with movement and stasis, as he sought to explore the delicate balance between the two. Around 1964, he began creating Cinetizations, photographs and prints of iconic monuments whose forms he radically altered, challenging perceptions of stability and gravity. By the late 1960s, Bury transitioned to working with materials like stainless steel, Cor-Ten steel, polished brass, and copper. In 1969, he created his first public fountain at the University of Iowa Museum of Art, marking a new phase in his practice. These fountains, often featuring slowly moving cylinders and spheres, became a hallmark of his work. They also demonstrated his mastery of light and reflection, as metal interacted with water and open-air environments to create dynamic visual effects. Through his kinetic sculptures, Cinetizations, and fountains, Bury redefined movement in art, merging technical precision with poetic exploration of motion and stillness.
Alexander Calder (USA, b. 1898 – d. 1976)
Alexander Calder grew up in a family of artists. He earned an engineering degree from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1919 but soon shifted his focus to art, studying at the Art Students League in New York from 1923 to 1925.
Calder’s fascination with movement and form began during his time as a freelance artist for the National Police Gazette in 1925, when he sketched circus scenes. That same year, he created his first wire sculpture and soon after began constructing figures and animals from wire and wood. His first exhibition of paintings took place at the Artist’s Gallery, New York, in 1926. Later that year, he traveled to Paris, where he attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and developed the famous Cirque Calder, a miniature circus he performed live. Calder’s wire sculptures debuted at the Weyhe Gallery in New York in 1928, and he formed lifelong friendships with artists such as Joan Miró.
In Paris, Calder’s exposure to abstraction grew as he met influential artists like Piet Mondrian, Frederick Kiesler, and Fernand Léger. His visit to Mondrian’s studio in 1930 was pivotal, inspiring his shift toward abstract sculpture. By 1931–32, Calder introduced movement into his work, creating the first “mobiles,” kinetic sculptures that moved with air currents or motors. Stationary works were later dubbed “stabiles.” He exhibited with the Abstraction-Création group in Paris from 1933 to 1936, and in 1943, the Museum of Modern Art in New York held his first retrospective.
During the 1950s, Calder expanded his repertoire, creating “gongs” (sound mobiles) and “towers” (wall mobiles). He traveled extensively, winning the Grand Prize for sculpture at the 1952 Venice Biennale. In 1955, Calder exhibited alongside pioneers of Kinetic art in Le Mouvement at Galerie Denise René in Paris. Late in his career, Calder worked with gouache and executed major public commissions. He developed the “totems” in 1965 and “animobiles” in 1969, further evolving his standing mobiles. Through his inventive work, Calder revolutionized sculpture, combining engineering precision with artistic whimsy.
Omar Carreño (Venezuela, b. 1927 – d. 2013)
Omar Rafael Carreño studied in Caracas and later in Europe, residing for many years in Paris, Rome, and Venice. By 1950, he was already producing abstract geometric paintings, predating Jesús Rafael Soto’s abstract works.
In 1951, Carreño began creating polípticos, geometric works designed to be transformable and interactive. His 1952 solo exhibition, Peintures Reliefs, at Galerie Arnaud in Paris showcased these innovative works. One piece, Políptico 4, was featured in the memorial album of the 6th Salon de Réalités Nouvelles that year and later became a centerpiece in his 1983 retrospective at the Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo in Madrid (now the Reina Sofia). Many of these works are now part of the Museo de Bellas Artes collection in Caracas. In early 1952, Luis Guevara Moreno invited Carreño to exhibit his polípticos in a MADI show at Galeria Suzanne Michel in Paris. This exhibition, a year and a half before Yaacov Agam’s first Paris solo show in 1953, establishes Carreño as the pioneer of postwar transformable art.
Carreño expanded his practice in 1967 by introducing transformable light works. He continued exhibiting in France, Spain, Venezuela, and Italy, and participated in the 1972 Venice Biennial. Alongside his artistic achievements, Carreño wrote several Manifiestos Expansionistas and essays exploring the intersection of art and science, solidifying his legacy as a transformative figure in kinetic and interactive art.
Narciso Debourg ( Venezuela, b. 1925 – France, d. 2022)
Narciso Debourg was a co-founder of Los Disidentes and participant in Madí and kinetic art movements. Debourg attended the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Aplicadas in Caracas from 1940 to 1945. During his studies, he participated in a student strike protesting outdated academic systems, leading to his expulsion alongside his peers. From this movement emerged the groups Barraca de Maripérez and Barraca de Guaicaipuro, the latter co-founded by Debourg. In 1948, he joined the Taller Libre de Arte, transitioning from figurative painting to Cubism. By 1949, Debourg had moved to Paris, becoming one of the first Venezuelans to adopt abstract art and its kinetic variants. He co-founded Los Disidentes in 1950, a group of Venezuelan artists in Paris advocating for geometric abstraction and cultural renewal.
In 1951, influenced by Constructivism, Debourg began focusing on repetitive geometric forms. Initially flat, these forms evolved into cubical and cylindrical shapes arranged rhythmically on surfaces, often cut diagonally to create dynamic light effects. Some works were monochromatic with subtle contrasts, while others used color to enhance spatial undulations. By 1964, he introduced hollow cylinders into his work, expanding his exploration of luminous spatial relationships.
Debourg participated in key international exhibitions, including Salon des Réalités Nouvelles (Paris, 1951–1955) and Lumière et Mouvement (Paris, 1967). In the 1960s, he became associated with the Nouvelle Tendance movement, which emphasized kinetic and programmed art. His first solo exhibitions took place in Europe—at Galleria Cadario, Milan (1963), and Signals London (1965). In 1969, he held a retrospective at Galería Estudio Actual in Caracas, showcasing painted wood assemblages, canvases, and a motorized sculpture. Shortly after, Debourg began incorporating his work into architectural contexts, blending art and environment seamlessly.
Marcel Duchamp (France, b. 1887 – d. 1968)
Marcel Duchamp was born into a family of artists. His brothers, Jacques Villon and Raymond Duchamp-Villon were prominent figures in painting and sculpture. Duchamp briefly studied at the Académie Julian in Paris from 1904–05 and began his career influenced by Fauvism and Matisse. By 1911, he developed a unique style combining Cubism and Futurism, evident in his groundbreaking Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (1912), which caused a sensation at the 1913 Armory Show in New York.
In 1913, Duchamp shifted away from painting to create his first "readymades"—ordinary objects designated as art. Works like Bicycle Wheel (1913), a spinning wheel mounted on a stool, are considered among the earliest examples of kinetic art. Bicycle Wheel was not designed to convey a specific narrative but to exist as an art object defying traditional aesthetics, emphasizing motion and interaction. His kinetic explorations continued with Rotary Glass Plates (Precision Optics) (1920) and Rotoreliefs (1935), which fused engineering and art. Rotoreliefs consisted of spinning discs with optical designs that created an illusion of movement and depth. These works underscored Duchamp’s fascination with mechanical motion and visual perception, blending artistic innovation with scientific inquiry.
From 1915 to 1923, Duchamp worked on The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), a monumental, kinetic-inspired work incorporating movable elements. Although static in form, its layered glass panels and diagrams evoke dynamism and mechanical action. Duchamp’s later years saw continued experimentation with movement. His collaboration with Man Ray and experimental filmmakers like Hans Richter explored visual motion. In the last two decades of his life, Duchamp created Étant donnés (1946–1966), a three-dimensional diorama that, while not kinetic, required viewer interaction for full perception, extending his legacy of participatory art.
María Freire (Uruguay, b. 1917 - d. 2015)
María Freire born in 1915 in Montevideo, Uruguay, was a prolific and innovative artist within the Constructivist tradition. She studied at the Círculo de Bellas Artes (1938–1943) under José Cuneo and Severino Pose, and at the Universidad del Trabajo with Antonio Pose. Her early sculptures reflected the influence of African art, an unusual inspiration for South American artists of her time.
Freire's encounter with European non-figurative art, particularly the Art Concret group and artists like Georges Vantongerloo and Max Bill, marked a turning point in her career. After meeting her husband, artist José Pedro Costigliolo, in the early 1950s, she co-founded the Arte No-Figurativo group in Montevideo and exhibited with them in 1952 and 1953. Freire and Costigliolo represented Uruguay at the 2nd São Paulo Biennial in 1953, immersing themselves in Brazil’s enthusiasm for geometric abstraction. A Gallinal travel grant in 1957 allowed them to study in Paris and Amsterdam and to meet pioneers of abstraction, including Antoine Pevsner and Georges Vantongerloo.
Freire's work evolved through distinct phases. Her Sudamérica series (1958–1960) explored cut planes and polygonal forms in a restrained palette, while her later work embraced looser abstraction and expressive color. From 1975 to 1985, she created dynamic visual effects through repeated forms and chromatic modulations. Freire also contributed to art education, teaching drawing at an architecture prep school and writing art criticism for Acción magazine (1962–1973).
In 2000, Freire began creating large-scale public sculptures in Uruguay, marking the culmination of her lifelong engagement with abstraction and Constructivist principles. Her innovative, evolving body of work remains a vital yet underappreciated contribution to 20th-century art.
Carmen Herrera (Cuba, b. 1915 – USA, d. 2022)
Carmen Herrera was an abstract, minimalist visual artist and painter. Core to Carmen Herrera’s painting was a drive for formal simplicity and a striking sense of colour: “My quest”, she said, “is for the simplest of pictorial resolutions.” A master of crisp lines and contrasting chromatic planes, Herrera created symmetry, asymmetry and an infinite variety of movement, rhythm and spatial tension across the canvas with the most unobtrusive application of paint. As she moved away from biomorphism towards pure, geometric abstraction during her time in Paris in the later 1940s, she began making shaped, elliptical and tondo canvases, in addition to pioneering the use of solvent-based acrylic paints in post-war Europe.
She exhibited alongside Theo van Doesburg, Max Bill and Piet Mondrian and a younger generation of Latin American artists, such as members of the Venezuelan Los Disidentes, Brazilian Concretists and the Argentinian Grupo Madi. By the mid-1960s she had experimented with much reduced palettes, pairing black or green with white before leaving the picture plane entirely and beginning work on her first Estructuras, a series of sculptural works occupying the wall, floor and the public realm, which also paid homage to her earlier training in architecture. Reflecting on this mid-century period, she said, “I began a lifelong process of purification, a process of taking away what isn’t essential.” Herrera’s growing body of work established, quietly but steadily, a cross-cultural dialogue within the international history of modernist abstraction. Her work also chimes with her peers such as Barnett Newman and Leon Polk Smith. While receiving increasing plaudits and museum recognition later in life, Herrera remained grounded throughout, stating when aged 105 that: “Being ignored is a form of freedom. I felt liberated from having to constantly please anyone.”
Robert Jacobsen (Denmark, b. 1912 – d. 1993)
Robert Jacobsen was a renowned Danish sculptor. His artistic journey began without formal education, as he trained himself in sculpture, initially inspired by Rodin and Henri Laurens. In 1930, Jacobsen created his first wooden sculptures without preparatory drawings, later associating with the surrealist movement Host. The Scandinavian folklore heavily influenced his early work, and a 1932 exhibition on German Expressionism inspired him to embrace abstraction, drawing from artists like Nolde, Klee, and Arp.
During World War II, Jacobsen joined the Danish resistance and collaborated with young artists through the revue Helhesten, led by Asger Jorn, with whom he formed a lasting friendship. His work gained recognition in Scandinavia, exhibiting alongside peers like Mortensen and Hansen. In 1947, Jacobsen received a French government scholarship, prompting a move to Paris, where he transitioned from stone to forged and welded metal sculptures. His abstract creations emphasized the interplay of voids and metal, transforming discarded materials into dynamic forms. Jacobsen’s prominence grew internationally during the 1950s and 60s, with his sculptures exhibited in prestigious galleries and museums. In 1962, he became a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, adding polychrome elements to enhance his sculptures. In 1966, he won the Grand Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale.
Returning to Denmark in the 1970s, Jacobsen created monumental public works and became a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1976. In his later years, he collaborated with Jean Clareboudt on the Tørskind Gravel Pit sculpture park, blending steel, granite, and wood into the Danish landscape. Jacobsen’s legacy endures through his sculptures, engravings, and illustrated works, celebrated worldwide for their innovative abstraction and formal ingenuity.
Nikolai Kasak (Russia, b. 1917 – USA, d. 1994)
Nikolai Kasak initially considered joining a monastery and dedicating his life to religion. Instead, he pursued art, earning his undergraduate degree from Warsaw’s School of Fine and Applied Art in the 1930s. He continued his studies at Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts and Rome’s Academy of Fine Arts’ School for Advanced Studies. Although Kasak trained in the academic realism of the late 19th century, he was deeply influenced by movements like De Stijl, Russian Constructivism, and Suprematism. These influences led him to abandon figurative art for pure abstraction, focusing on form, formulaic compositions, and vibrant color blocks in his paintings, drawings, reliefs, and constructions.
Kasak lived in Rome and Florence from 1945 to 1950 before immigrating to the United States in 1951. After a brief stay in Dallas, he settled in New York, where he remained for the rest of his life. In the 1950s and 60s, he joined the Argentine Madí movement, invited by Gyula Kosice. Kasak exhibited widely with the group, including at *International Madí Art* in Buenos Aires (1957), *International Madí* at Galerie Denise René in Paris (1960), and *15 Years of Madí Art* at Buenos Aires’ Museum of Modern Art (1961). Kasak also penned theoretical essays exploring positive and negative space, notably *Physical Art – Action of Positive and Negative* (1945-46) and *From Action to Dynamic Silence: The Art of Nikolai Kasak* (1991). His work reflects a fascination with the void and the spiritual dimensions of art.
For Kasak, art was a vessel for spiritual energy. He described it as “an intellectual and spiritual force... a creative effort to parallel the cosmos’ fundamental organization with the unitary nature of divine reality.” His works illuminate both aesthetic and spiritual understanding.
Gyula Kosice (Czechoslovakia, b. 1924 – Argentina, d. 2016)
Gyula Kosice left Hungary with his parents at the age of four. He studied drawing and sculpture at the Free Academy in Buenos Aires. In 1944, he co-founded the journal Arturo, followed by the publication Invención. In 1946, he exhibited in Arte Concreto-Invención at the home of Dr. Pichon-Rivière in Buenos Aires and co-founded the Madí movement, authoring its manifesto. The first Madí group exhibition was held at the French Institute in Buenos Aires that same year, and he founded and directed its magazine, Arte Madí Universal, which ran from 1947 to 1954 (with eight issues). Around this time, he began working with plexiglass and experimenting with neon and fluorescent tubing.
In 1947, he held his first solo exhibition at the Pacífico Gallery in Buenos Aires, and in 1948 he exhibited at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in Paris. He settled in Paris in 1957, where he created his first hydraulic sculpture. In 1964, he conceived the design for the Argentine Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. In 1962, he received the International Sculpture Prize from Instituto di Tella in Buenos Aires, where he also held a retrospective.
In 1988, he was commissioned to create a sculpture for the Seoul Olympic Games. He was represented in the Arte Concreto-Invención - Arte Madí exhibition in Zurich in 1991 and in Artistas Latinoamericanos del Siglo XX, an exhibition that began in Seville in 1992 and continued to the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (1992-1993), Museum Ludwig in Cologne (1993), and the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1993). He was also included in the Argentina 1920-1994 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford in 1994.
Julio Le Parc (Argentina, b. 1928)
Julio Le Parc is a central figure in kinetic and contemporary art. During the 1940s, he studied under Lucio Fontana in Buenos Aires, engaging with abstract avant-garde movements. In 1958, Le Parc moved to Paris, where encounters with Op artists like Victor Vasarely profoundly influenced his work. That year, he began a series of gouaches—intimate yet methodical studies of form and color—that explored geometric abstraction through variations, sequences, and progressions. These early explorations anticipated his pioneering role in Kinetic art during the 1960s, incorporating movement into paintings and sculptures with mirrors, motors, and electric light.
In 1960, Le Parc co-founded the influential Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV) alongside Horacio Garcia Rossi, Francisco Sobrino, François Morellet, Joël Stein, and Jean-Pierre Vasarely (Yvaral). His work from this period reflects a rigorous approach to organizing color and form, producing precise, system-based compositions. Beyond two-dimensional works, Le Parc experimented with projected lights in darkened rooms, introducing playfulness and inviting active viewer participation. These immersive environments, such as Continual Light Cylinder (1962/2018), exemplify his aim to make art both accessible and politically relevant.A key figure in Op and kinetic art, Le Parc’s practice focuses on transforming the viewer’s role from passive observer to active participant. His use of perceptual instability challenges conventional relationships between art and audience.
Le Parc’s achievements earned him the International Grand Prize for Painting at the 33rd Venice Biennale in 1966. A defender of human rights, he opposed Latin American dictatorships through antifascist projects, merging his aesthetic innovations with social activism to redefine art’s role in society.
Antonio Llorens (Argentina, b. 1920 – Uruguay, d. 1995)
Antonio Llorens was a prominent artist and a key figure in geometric and abstract art. He studied at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Montevideo, alongside Guillermo Laborde and José Cuneo, and became associated with the MADÍ group in the 1940s. Llorens also co-founded the Grupo de Arte No-Figurativo with José Pedro Costigliolo and María Freire in 1952, where he participated in influential exhibitions at the Asociación Cristiana de Jóvenes in Montevideo. His early works, marked by irregular frames and co-planes, blended curved and orthogonal geometric forms, creating compositions of remarkable lyricism.
From the late 1950s, Llorens progressively simplified his forms and reduced his palette to black and white, focusing on optical effects. As a member of Grupo 8 in the 1960s, his works featured minimal use of lines, exploring rotation, displacement, and dynamism. During this period, he also taught at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Montevideo (1962–1972) and later experimented with ceramics. In 1987, he received Uruguay’s National Painting Prize (Premio Nacional de Pintura INCA). Llorens' legacy lies in his dedication to abstract art, as seen in his dynamic explorations of form, color, and movement, which contributed significantly to the development of modern art in Uruguay and beyond.
Vera Molnár (Hungary, b. 1924 – France, d. 2023)
Vera Molnár arrived in Paris in 1947 in her early thirties, joining artistic circles that included figures like Constantin Brâncuși, Wassily Kandinsky, László Moholy-Nagy, and Victor Vasarely. These émigrés and refugees from fascism and Soviet expansionism embraced modernist abstraction as a space for experimental, emancipatory expression. In 1959, Molnár began creating art guided by simple algorithms, using what she called a machine imaginaire to predetermine the placement of gridded lines and colors—an essential precursor to her later computer-generated work.
By the 1960s, Molnár co-founded Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV) with François Morellet, Julio Le Parc, and others to explore collaboration and audience interaction through Kinetic and Op Art. However, she left GRAV due to differences over technology just as computers became more accessible. In 1968, despite skepticism about the role of machines in art, she persuaded Paris University’s computer center to let her use their system. There, she worked alongside scientists and researchers, renting computer time and programming with punch cards and the early language FORTRAN. Her groundbreaking series Interruptions used computer-generated straight lines rotated at various angles to create mesmerizing effects. This work aligned her with mid-century women innovators in computing and expanded the conceptual potential of machine-made art. As screens developed, Molnár described a "dialogue" emerging between herself and the machine, allowing her to refine her compositions visually.
Molnár’s computer-based methods parallel Sol LeWitt’s conceptual art, though her approach retained a tactile intimacy. Unlike LeWitt, who prioritized instructions over execution, Molnár cherished the act of making. “Even today,” she told art historian Vincent Baby, “my greatest pleasure in life is to slide the tip of a pencil over the paper, look at the mark, erase it, and start again.” Her work reflects both a conceptual rigor and a deeply personal connection to the creative process.
Lygia Pape (Brazil, b. 1927 – d. 2004)
Lygia Pape was a seminal figure in the Neo-Concrete movement and a pioneer of Brazilian contemporary art. Her practice, which spanned painting, printmaking, sculpture, installation, film, and performance, was rooted in a spirit of experimentation. Pape sought to challenge cultural and political paradigms, reimagining the relationship between artwork, environment, and viewer.
Emerging as an artist during Brazil's post-World War II era, Pape turned away from the figurative traditions tied to nationalist agendas, favoring the enigmatic potential of geometric abstraction. Her early association with Grupo Frente, an avant-garde collective formed in Rio de Janeiro, marked a decisive shift toward abstraction unmoored from observed reality. These explorations emphasized geometric relationships, negative space, and a lyrical interplay of form. In the late 1950s, Pape began to interrogate the boundaries of two-dimensional representation, seeking ways to integrate artworks more dynamically with their surroundings. Through her evolving practice, she experimented with how objects occupied space and engaged viewers in immersive encounters, emphasizing the fluid, participatory nature of perception. These innovations reflected her belief in art as a site of interaction, one that activated both individual and collective experiences.
As a signatory of the Neo-Concrete manifesto in 1959, Pape embraced its call for greater sensorial and existential engagement in art, advocating for works that invited physical and emotional interaction. Over subsequent decades, she expanded her artistic inquiries across media, consistently exploring the intersections of light, texture, and spatial relationships. Her practice evolved to include installations that created transformative environments, evoking intimacy and vastness simultaneously. Pape’s enduring legacy lies in her ability to reimagine abstraction as a living, participatory experience. Her work continues to inspire, embodying a profound dialogue between form, space, and the viewer’s active presence.
Raúl Pavlotzky (Israel, b. 1918 – Uruguay, d. 1998)
Raúl Pavlotzky spent most of his life in Uruguay, where he became a prominent figure in the country's avant-garde art scene. Embracing Uruguayan citizenship, Pavlotzky was an enthusiastic participant in various artistic groups and movements, contributing significantly to the development of concrete and geometric abstraction in the region.
As one of the earliest concrete artists in Uruguay, Pavlotzky worked alongside members of the Madí such as Carmelo Arden Quin, Rhod Rothfuss, Antonio Llorens, and Rodolfo Ian Uricchio. In the 1950s, he aligned himself with the geometric abstraction movement led by precursors José Pedro Costigliolo and María Freire. His contributions to this movement were marked by a commitment to experimental art that spanned the 1950s through the 1970s, a period during which he produced his most significant works.
Pavlotzky also played a foundational role in the formation of “Grupo 8,” a collective that became a cornerstone of Uruguay’s vernacular avant-garde. This group emphasized innovation and the exploration of new artistic possibilities, reflecting Pavlotzky’s own experimental ethos. His work during this time demonstrated a profound engagement with the possibilities of geometric forms and abstraction. International recognition of Pavlotzky’s contributions came in 1958, when he was invited to represent Uruguay at the inaugural São Paulo Biennial. In 1962, he was selected to exhibit at the first Córdoba Biennial, further solidifying his role as a key figure in the Latin American art scene. Throughout his career, Pavlotzky remained dedicated to pushing the boundaries of artistic expression, leaving a legacy within the trajectory of Uruguayan and international modern art.
Jesús Rafael Soto (Venezuela, b. 1923 – France, d. 2005)
Jesús Rafael Soto was a Venezuelan artist whose career reshaped the boundaries of abstraction, movement, and perception. Born in Ciudad Bolívar, his early artistic education was modest, with little exposure to European avant-garde innovations. Inspired by Cézanne, Picasso, and Van Gogh during his studies in Caracas, he explored how abstraction could transcend static representation to reflect the imperceptible flux of the universe. Soto's works—wall-mounted sculptures, environmental installations, and immersive spaces—invite viewers to experience the world as a constant interplay of change and instability.
After serving as director of the School of Plastic Arts in Maracaibo, Soto moved to Paris in 1950, immersing himself in its thriving art scene. Collaborating with Latin American and European artists, he engaged with movements like Madí and Salon des Réalités Nouvelles and he participated in the groundbreaking exhibition Le Mouvement at the Denise René Gallery in 1955. Encounters with works by Duchamp, Calder, and Malevich informed his lifelong interest in incorporating actual and virtual movement into art. Soto's technique of superimposing transparent layers over patterned backgrounds created optical ambiguities, disrupting traditional spatial perception. This principle, central to his practice, embodied his belief that art should reveal the universe’s inherent uncertainty and mutability.
By the late 1950s, Soto became associated with Nouveau Réalisme and Group Zero. Influenced by Yves Klein, he incorporated everyday materials into his work, transforming them through optical vibrations into immaterial, dynamic forms. For Soto, these pieces were not static objects but conduits for exploring the tension between materiality and motion, a theme central to his mature work. In the 1960s, Soto’s immersive environments further emphasized viewer engagement. His later career saw the development of expansive installations, such as the Penetrables, which enveloped participants in a kinetic, disorienting experience. Soto’s artistic philosophy remained consistent throughout his life: abstraction and movement were tools to decode the ever-changing nature of reality, bridging structure and emotion, mathematics and music, material and immaterial.
Grete Stern (Germany, b. 1904 – Argentina, d. 1999)
Grete Stern was a major figure in the development of photographic art in twentieth-century Argentina. Stern studied graphic arts in Stuttgart before turning her attention to photography and studying in Berlin under the Bauhaus professor Walter Peterhans. With German-American photographer Ellen Rosenberg Auerbach, Stern founded the acclaimed photography and design studio ringl+pit. In the 1930s, fleeing Nazi Germany, Stern emigrated first to London, then to Argentina, where she and her husband Horacio Coppola launched the country’s first modern photography exhibition and opened a studio together in Buenos Aires.
Her house built in the outskirts of the city, became a meeting place for young artists and writers, many of them Coppola’s friends, both Argentine and exiled foreigners. Groups such as the Madi arts group exhibited at her house.
In 1948, Stern began working for Idilio, an illustrated magazine for middle-class women in Argentina. It was for Idilio that Stern’s now famous series Sueños (Dreams) was published. Stern created these photomontages as surreal illustrations of dreams submitted by the magazine’s female readers. The Museum of Modern Art wrote in the catalogue for its 2005 exhibition of Stern’s work, Suenos “Stern’s forward-thinking Sueños (Dreams), a series of photomontages she contributed to the popular women’s magazine Idilio, portray[ed] women’s dreams mobilized by the unfulfilled promises of the Peronist regime in Argentine society with urgency and surreal wit.”
Jean Tinguely (Switzerland, b. 1925 – d. 1991)
Jean Tinguely was a Swiss artist celebrated as one of the leading figures in kinetic art, a movement that explores motion as a central element of artistic expression. Born in Fribourg and raised in Basel, he studied at the Basel School of Arts and Crafts, where he began experimenting with the dynamic interplay of art and movement. His work challenges the conventional idea of static art, replacing immobility with unpredictability and playfulness.
Tinguely’s early career was shaped by his relocation to Paris in the 1950s, where he immersed himself in the post-war avant-garde scene and developed a fascination with mechanical motion and the aesthetics of machinery. Influenced by Dada and Constructivism, he sought to create works that reflected the fleeting, ephemeral nature of life, incorporating motion, sound, and audience participation. A central theme in Tinguely’s work was his desire to blur the boundaries between art, technology, and life. His kinetic sculptures, often powered by motors and designed to appear autonomous, showcased movement as an artistic medium. These works were less about precision and functionality and more about exploring chaos, spontaneity, and the poetic possibilities of mechanical systems.
Tinguely was deeply connected to the kinetic art movement, collaborating with other pioneers of the genre, including Victor Vasarely, Jesús Rafael Soto, and Alexander Calder. Through his work, he emphasized the temporal and interactive aspects of art, often challenging viewers to engage with his creations and experience art as a living, changing process. His legacy is celebrated at the Museum Tinguely in Basel, a dedicated space that preserves and showcases his innovative approach to kinetic art. Tinguely’s work remains influential for its ability to transform movement into a metaphor for the impermanence and unpredictability of human experience.
Victor Vasarely (Hungary, b. 1906 – France, d. 1997)
Victor Vasarely was a transformative figure in 20th-century art, widely regarded as the father of Op Art. Initially a talented graphic designer in the 1930s, he became a pivotal force in post-war France, bridging kinetic art and pop art through his endorsement of industrial techniques and mass production in painting. His art celebrated popular forms and aimed to liberate art from traditional confines, advocating for works that would inhabit public spaces and everyday life.
In 1955, Vasarely took part in the groundbreaking exhibition Le Mouvement at the Denise René Gallery, marking a key moment in the Parisian avant-garde’s engagement with kineticism. He envisioned art that could exist beyond the museum, reaching the public similarly to how Renaissance palaces once dominated town squares. Vasarely’s vision extended to urban planning, architecture, and beyond; his aesthetic ideas influenced housing and social projects during France’s postwar period of rapid modernization. In 1976, he established the Vasarely Foundation in Aix-en-Provence, which he envisioned as a repository and resource—a “plastic alphabet”—for future artists, urbanists, and architects. This foundation continues Vasarely's legacy, embodying a timeless commitment to accessible, ubiquitous art that thrives across both time and space.