Carlos Cruz-Ten
Carlos Cruz-Diez, "Chromointerferent Environment [Chromointerferent Environment]", 1974/2019. Exhibition "Carlos Cruz-Diez. El color haciéndose", Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (MAC), Panama City, Republic of Panama, 2019. © Photo: Articruz SA Panama / Rafael Guil

The Porto Seguro Cultural Space, in São Paulo, opens the exhibition Cruz-Diez: the freedom of color, on the 9th of November. The exhibition is the last to be presented around the world that had the seal of the artist, who participated in the entire design process alongside the curator Rodrigo Villela, executive and artistic director of the São Paulo institution.

Three physiochromies and one transchromia make up the first room of the exhibition. In one of them, a small 1965 physiochromy, Cruz-Diez's work was still going through a pre-industrial period, says Villela. “Afterwards, his work becomes very industrial. He had this quest to get the work off the artisan scale. He said that he did not dedicate himself to painting because painting had a lot of craftsmanship and he wanted something that could have more scale”, comments the curator.

The artist was very assertive in what he believed. In a text from 1967, to which he gave the title of My thoughts on Color, he proposes the concept of “autonomous color”, in which color does not depend on form, specificity or support. And, in this way, he extrapolates supports and techniques, using videos, paintings, installations, photographs and appropriating walls, streets and even gardens.

On the institution's mezzanine, the public can find the work Transchromy Labyrinth. 1965/2017, for the first time being shown in Brazil. In the basement, rooms show Interfering Chromium Environment, 1974/2019 and chromosaturation, 1965/2004, in addition to two ephemeral wall works with the same principle of color combination. Closing the show, a more documentary core includes twenty black and white photographs taken by Cruz-Diez at the beginning of his career and two videos: one with photographs of works in public spaces and another with his testimonies about his works.


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