Carlos Cruz-Diez

And What is Color?

Physics of the atom is the source for understanding the material phenomena. It reveals the basic structure and shows there is no difference between matter and energy. There is light quanta and photons that move. Light is, ultimately, thousands of “bits” of energy. Classic physics explains how to produce a color stimulus through different electromagnetic oscillations. It teaches us that all the visible colors are contained in white light. Then comes the turn of Chromatism, which informs us of the results that we can obtain – with mathematical certainty – when mix- ing color lights in a determined quantitative proportion. These results give rise to the development of theories of color and ordainment systems whose aim is to illustrate the diversity of color phenomena, connected in a logical and comprehensible way, later to represent them.

People:

Color affects medicine, photochemistry or physiology, but Cruz-Diez is concerned with the psychological aspect of color, since it has an effect on feeling and is free from intellectual judgment. Our artist knows how to delve into the primitive depth of the human subconscious, generating certain emotions or reactions. The goal is to captivate the viewer and stimulate the atavistic, Western-world man is basically gregarious. He does not explore his interior. This prevents him from recognizing essential feelings. He is surprised by the artist, and because urban life has led to the loss of his instincts, he does not realize that the latter is only pursuing the more playful sen- sations. For this reason, the reactions in a museum may vary with each individual. In this new presentation of his experiences, which were previously featured in Dormunt (Germany) and Paris (France), master Carlos Cruz-Diez makes use of one of his maxims: “I do not bring stages to a close. I widen my work platform and resume the experience in ordet to do something else”. Here he resorts to new technologies to reinforce his previous experiences, endowing them with more vitality. Or perhaps he looks at himself. In this case, physics might generate such subtle conducting threads that it would be difficult to know if the result is art or science. To elucidate this is part of the challenge.

In this exhibition – currently on display in Caracas – the artist is presenting the chromosaturations, the chromointerferences and a room to interact with the public through computer science.

The chromosaturations:

The chromosaturations are chambers which the viewer enters. They are constituted by basic colors (green, magenta and cyan-blue) featured in transparencies, to generate new sensations. The visitor perceives a new sensory universe that is different from the habitual one, and that alters his/ her rhythm of spatial analysis. It is an artificial habitat that introduces the visitor in a basic world – which is unfamiliar to the contemporary urban man. The master intitiated this expe- rience in the 1960s.

The Chromointerferences:

In the Chromointerferences, the artist moves colors and forms so that they operate as plastic elements. There is a mutable effect of color as kinetic agent. This is a way of inciting the visitor to interact with the work, since he himself is immersed in a surface that emanates from color, from movement, from pre-established forms, and from human movement itself. Cruz Diez began with these proposals in 1954 and he developed them finally in 1974.

The Computer Science Room:

Through a network of comput- ers, this room allows visitors to become involved with the work, so that they may generate their own vision on the basis of the artist’s programmatic matrices. Thus he arouses the enthusiasm of the spectators, who “design” their proposal in a playful way, print it and carry it away as a souvenir. Obviously, the master generates an interest in the whole system and cre- ates a feeling of interaction with the artwork. By eliminating subjectivity, the participation of the public is encouraged.