ExhibitionMarch 26, 2021
The Weight of Form. The Graphic Design of Carlos Cruz-Diez Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
Prior to his kinetic work, Carlos Cruz-Diez worked as a graphic designer when he was still living in his native Caracas. This show displays part of Carlos Cruz-Diez’s output in graphic design in the years spanning from 1930 to 2015 and primarily developed in three formats: publishing design, posters, and exhibition catalogs. Ariel Jiménez curated the exhibition, and it will be on view at the Nouvel Building, Library and Documentation Centre, Space D until June 11, 2021.
The exhibition explores the role he played in developing the Venezuelan publishing industry, supporting it to go from being a company of technicians to one where the visual artist’s formal and chromatic sensibility was added to the design. Venezuela’s rapid economic expansion, driven by the oil industry and foreign immigration after World War II, required that the publishing companies and marketing strategies were commissioned to visual artists since graphic design was not a profession.
Carlos Cruz-Diez was part of the generation of Venezuelan artists who worked simultaneously in graphic and industrial design; this was not only the case in Venezuela but in other Latin American countries. Cruz-Diez’s work in graphic design and as a visual artist is characterized as the so-called “weight of form,” weight that is semantic and structural, positive and negative, liberating and oppressive. As a designer, the search for simple and effective solutions was based on the ordered and symbiotic co-existence of form, color, and content.
This documentary exhibition is presented by The Library and Documentation Center of the Museo Reina Sofía, in collaboration with the Urban Photography Archive and the Cruz-Diez Art Foundation .
The exhibition explores the role he played in developing the Venezuelan publishing industry, supporting it to go from being a company of technicians to one where the visual artist’s formal and chromatic sensibility was added to the design. Venezuela’s rapid economic expansion, driven by the oil industry and foreign immigration after World War II, required that the publishing companies and marketing strategies were commissioned to visual artists since graphic design was not a profession.
Carlos Cruz-Diez was part of the generation of Venezuelan artists who worked simultaneously in graphic and industrial design; this was not only the case in Venezuela but in other Latin American countries. Cruz-Diez’s work in graphic design and as a visual artist is characterized as the so-called “weight of form,” weight that is semantic and structural, positive and negative, liberating and oppressive. As a designer, the search for simple and effective solutions was based on the ordered and symbiotic co-existence of form, color, and content.
This documentary exhibition is presented by The Library and Documentation Center of the Museo Reina Sofía, in collaboration with the Urban Photography Archive and the Cruz-Diez Art Foundation .
