Over the months I spent in Venezuela, I had the opportunity to see the work of Carlos Villanueva, the country's most famous architect, a number of times.  In order to get a good look at the work of the most famous Venezuelan visual artist, Jesus Soto, I had to wait until I reached my last destination, his hometown of Ciuded Bolivar.  It was absolutely worth the wait.

Soto was born in 1923 and began his artistic career in his teens painting movie posters for local theaters.  He later studied art in Caracas directed an art school in Maracaibo before moving to Paris in 1950.  Throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s, his work appeared in one-man shows at top museums throughout the world including Amsterdam's Stedelijk and the Solomon R. Guggenheim in New York, and in major exhibitions at the Sao Paulo and Vienna bicentennials as well as New York's Museum of Modern Art.  He died in 2005.

Soto pioneered techniques in the kinetic and op-art genres, including perhaps his most unique idiom: placing items in front of a patterned background to create the illusion of movement within the piece as the observer moves.  This method produces mesmerizing works such as his 1981 'Gran Tes Negra', a large board almost completely covered with four raised black squares, which are covered with closely spaced thin vertical white stripes.  Rising from the surface are t-shaped black wires, with the crossbars more or less lined up horizontally.  Standing at a distance, any motion by the observer creates a shimmering, vibrating effect within the piece that is difficult to turn away from.

In the middle of his most productive period, Soto opened the Jesus Soto Museum of Modern Art in his hometown with the help of his dear friend Villanueva.  Soto donated millions of dollars worth of his artworks (including 'Gran Tes Negra'), and Villanueva donated his services designing the chunky modernest building.  The museum was inaugurated in 1973.

Many of Soto's earlier works utilized Plexiglas to achieve similar results, and some of these can be seen at his eponymous museum.  His 1955 'Espiral' features two similar spirals, one on the background and one on a sheet of Plexiglas raised several centimeters over the surface by metal rods.  The interplay of the two as the observer's perspective changes produces the illusion of movement.

According to information provided at the museum, Soto became fascinated with modern physics, and this fascination led to the evolution of his work from the use of Plexiglas to the more complex metal works.  In particular, the concepts that time is merely the fourth spatial dimension and that energy and matter are but two aspects of the same thing informed his later works.  These discoveries, of course, led to the advancement of quantum physics, which tells us that observers at the very least change, if not create, reality, and this fact courses through Soto's work, which seems inseparable from its intended audience.

Some of Soto's pieces are on a truly grand scale.  The largest one that fits in the Museum is 'Esfera Japon' from 1991.  The work, which stretches from the floor to the ceiling, creates and almost holographic effect from a vast number of plastic threads which are held taut between white wooden blocks.  Parts of the centers of each strand are colored red, and they are arranged in such a way that a large red sphere seems to hover in the center.  Nonetheless, it is easy to see through the piece, meaning that as the observer moves around it, its appearance changes, as does that of the rest of the room seen through it.

Larger sill are the works for which Soto is perhaps most famous, his 'Penetrables', two of which can be experienced in the sculpture garden on the grounds outside the museum's numerous halls.  I differentiate experiencing the pieces from seeing them because to merely see a Soto 'Penetrable' would be akin to smelling the 'Mona Lisa' without having a look.

The 'Penetrables' are large cubic metal frames hung with vertical metal bars or plastic threads into which the viewer can walk, and indeed must walk if the artworks are to be appreciated.  The largest on the campus is his 1994 'Penetrable Amarillo' at a massive nine by nine by ten meters.  The frame is hung with yellow and black flexible PVC tubes that caress the skin and distort the view of the outside world as one passes into the piece.

'Penetrable Sonoro,' dated 1970-93 is smaller at 4 meters cubed, but still imposing.  The vertical components here are hollow metal tubes of varying diameter hung on chains to allow them to move.  The tubes at the outside of the cube are smaller, while those toward the inside are several centimeters across.  In addition to the tactile and visual impact of passing into the piece, doing so causes the tubes to strike one another, creating a sound inspired by the carillons and chimes of his adopted home.  Having gone to Amsterdam, the capital of the capital of carillons, just weeks after penetrating this piece, I can say he got it spot on.  Passing through the sculpture is as ethereal an experience as hearing the bells echo through the canals.

While the Museum bears his name, Soto is not the only artist whose work is on view there.  Also in the sculpture garden are works by other artists, including Soto's friend and compatriot Alexander Otero, whose 1981 'Molino de Cuatro' is on display there.  This two meter steel cubic frame is balanced one corner and contains a four-vaned steel windmill on a vertical axis, with vanes reminiscent of sails.

Inside the buildings, several rooms are dedicated to the work of the Venezuelan painter and sculptor Gego.  Born Gertrude Goldschmidt in Germany in 1912, she fled the holocaust to South America in 1939.  The collection in the Soto Museum comprises sketches and models of her imposing works, particularly her 'Reticuláreas', which fill the spaces for which they are designed with interwoven nets and webs of steel and aluminium bars.  One hall of the National Art Gallery is filled with a 'Reticulárea,' as is much of the space near the entrance to La Hoyada Metro station in downtown Caracas.  Both works are mesmerizing due to their scope and complexity.  While I did not personally see the rest of them, her works also adorn other huge interior spaces throughout Caracas in office towers and shopping malls, making the informative display in Ciudad Bolivar a must for anyone wanting to get an idea of these works as a group.

While Caracas is as much the artistic capital of Venezuela as it is the political one, Ciudad Bolivar scores a coup with the wonderful Jesus Soto Museum of Modern Art.  Authorities wanted it to be placed in Caracas, but Soto insisted that it be in his hometown, and the citizenry should thank him for this as much as for his generosity.  It is truly a world-class place, one that any city could be proud of.

Joshua C. Robinson

jrobinson@riseup.net