This work is currently installed at the Hispanic Society Museum & Library.Description of artwork: Penetrable (1990) is an interactive sculpture created by Jesús Rafael Soto, a prominent Venezuelan artist known for his involvement in the kinetic and op art movement. Composed of suspended yellow plastic tubes arranged within a steel grid, the structure beckons individuals to engage with it. As viewers navigate through the dense curtain of tubes, they are enveloped and seemingly absorbed into the artwork, blurring the boundaries between themselves and the piece.
In their contribution to the catalogue for the exhibition "The Geometry of Hope," art historian Luis Pérez Oramas states:
The Penetrable is the locus in which Soto both synthesized and condensed the contradictions and utopias implicit in his artistic project. As an optical work seen from a distance, the Penetrable functions as a kind of dematerialization machine, absorbing into the extraordinary transparency of its interior the bodies that penetrate it. As a tactile work experienced physically, the Penetrable functions in the manner of a coarse-textured, visual-saturation machine as viewers’ bodies penetrate its skein of plastic lines and become immersed in its opaque environment. Soto said that at one point he had dreamed of a work that could absorb the entire planet—a utopian, humanistic vision that, in order to be realized, would require the impossible supposition of an ideal viewing point beyond the planet.
In 2011, the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) published the book Jesús Soto in conversation with Ariel Jiménez, a product of nine years of interviews which records the dialogues between the artist and art historian Ariel Jiménez. Throughout the interview, Soto expresses his fascination with the dematerializing power of light, a concept that resonates strongly in Penetrable. Find the publication and read more about Soto’s art and ideas here. Video: Watch a short video about Jesús Rafael Soto (Ciudad Bolívar, 1923–Paris, 2005) produced by El Tigre Productions for the CPPC:
Materials:
Painted iron, aluminum and plastic hoses
Dimensions:
508 x 508 x 508 cm (200 x 200 x 200 inches)
Artist:
Jesús Rafael Soto
Title:
Penetrable
Date:
1990
Materials:
Painted iron, aluminum and plastic hoses
Dimensions:
508 x 508 x 508 cm (200 x 200 x 200 inches)
This work is currently installed at the Hispanic Society Museum & Library.Description of artwork: Penetrable (1990) is an interactive sculpture created by Jesús Rafael Soto, a prominent Venezuelan artist known for his involvement in the kinetic and op art movement. Composed of suspended yellow plastic tubes arranged within a steel grid, the structure beckons individuals to engage with it. As viewers navigate through the dense curtain of tubes, they are enveloped and seemingly absorbed into the artwork, blurring the boundaries between themselves and the piece.
In their contribution to the catalogue for the exhibition "The Geometry of Hope," art historian Luis Pérez Oramas states:
The Penetrable is the locus in which Soto both synthesized and condensed the contradictions and utopias implicit in his artistic project. As an optical work seen from a distance, the Penetrable functions as a kind of dematerialization machine, absorbing into the extraordinary transparency of its interior the bodies that penetrate it. As a tactile work experienced physically, the Penetrable functions in the manner of a coarse-textured, visual-saturation machine as viewers’ bodies penetrate its skein of plastic lines and become immersed in its opaque environment. Soto said that at one point he had dreamed of a work that could absorb the entire planet—a utopian, humanistic vision that, in order to be realized, would require the impossible supposition of an ideal viewing point beyond the planet.
In 2011, the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) published the book Jesús Soto in conversation with Ariel Jiménez, a product of nine years of interviews which records the dialogues between the artist and art historian Ariel Jiménez. Throughout the interview, Soto expresses his fascination with the dematerializing power of light, a concept that resonates strongly in Penetrable. Find the publication and read more about Soto’s art and ideas here. Video: Watch a short video about Jesús Rafael Soto (Ciudad Bolívar, 1923–Paris, 2005) produced by El Tigre Productions for the CPPC:
