Image 1. Exhibition views of Cruz-Diez: The Unstable Plane. Cayón Madrid, 2026. © Carlos Cruz-Diez / Bridgeman Images 2026
Image 2. Carlos Cruz-Diez in his studio, Paris, France, 1964. Photo: Atelier Cruz-Diez Paris / Rafael Navarro. © Estate of Carlos Cruz-Diez / Bridgeman Images 2026
Cayón is pleased to present, across its two Madrid spaces, the eighth solo exhibition dedicated to the artist Cruz-Diez, entitled The Unstable Plane.
Exhibition views of Cruz-Diez: The Unstable Plane Cayón Madrid, 2026. © Carlos Cruz-Diez / Bridgeman Images 2026
Physichromie 1499, París 2007
Chromography on aluminum, plastic inserts. 100 x 100 cm.
© Carlos Cruz-Diez / Bridgeman Images 2026
Following his exhibition Color as Action in Menorca (2021), The Unstable Plane brings together a carefully curated selection of square-format works that highlight the artist’s persistent commitment to demonstrating the “autonomy of color,” a pursuit he developed with determination beginning in 1959.
Cruz-Diez proposed a radically different notion of color in contrast to the pictorial tradition that understood it as a material applied to a surface. His approach sought to liberate color from the fixed plane, projecting it into space and defining it as a “situation” in constant flux: an event activated through time and through the viewer’s perception.
In his work, the plane ceases to be stable and passive, becoming instead a dynamic and unstable field in which color manifests as experience.
The exhibition’s title alludes precisely to this fluctuating condition within the oeuvre of the French-Venezuelan artist, recognized as one of the leading figures of art in the first half of the twentieth century. Although framed within a rigorous geometric format such as the square, Cruz-Diez’s works are never perceived as closed or definitive surfaces. Within a strict formal structure—a device of containment—color is in constant transformation before the viewer’s eyes.
Physichromie 1960 , Paris 2015
Chromography on aluminum, plastic inserts. 100 x 100 cm.
© Carlos Cruz-Diez / Bridgeman Images 2026
“Through my chromatic trajectory, I seek to reveal color as an ephemeral and autonomous situation.”
—Cruz-Diez, Reflections on Color, 1989
Exhibition views of Cruz-Diez: The Unstable Plane
Cayón Madrid, 2026. © Carlos Cruz-Diez / Bridgeman Images 2026
Couleur Additive N°353, Paris, 2016
Acrylic paint on aluminum.120 x 120 cm.
© Carlos Cruz-Diez / Bridgeman Images 2026
The exhibition presents eight works created between 2007 and 2018, belonging to three of the artist’s fundamental series: Physichromies (series begun in 1959), which require the viewer to move in order to complete the work through perceptual change; Inductions Chromatiques (series begun in 1963), which make colors that do not physically exist on the surface emerge; and Couleur Additive (series begun in 1959).
The latter series stems from the artist’s research on color irradiation, a phenomenon in which the intersection of two chromatic planes generates a virtual darker line at their meeting point. These are known as “chromatic event modules,” largely responsible for the continuous perceptual transformation of color.
Cruz-Diez reminds us that color is an experience that goes beyond mere observation—it is lived and felt. In The Unstable Plane, color definitively frees itself from the fixed plane to unfold as a living, mutable event, constructed through time and through the viewer’s active perception, even while remaining framed within the apparent rigor of the square format.
Inducción Cromática a doble frecuencia Panam 12 Panama, 2011
Chromography on plastic. 120 x 120 cm.
© Carlos Cruz-Diez / Bridgeman Images 2026
Physichromie 1499, 2007
Paris.
Chromography on aluminum, plastic inserts
Unique piece
100 x 100 cm.
CC169
Inducción Cromática a doble frecuencia Panam 12, 2011
Panama.
Chromography on plastic
Edition: 1/8
120 x 120 cm.
CC173
Physichromie 1976, 2015
Paris.
Chromography on aluminum, plastic inserts
Unique piece
100 x 100 cm.
CC171
Physichromie 1960, 2015
Paris.
Chromography on aluminum, plastic inserts
Unique piece
100 x 100 cm.
CC170
Induction Chromatique N°212, 2016
Paris
Acrylic paint on aluminum
Unique piece
120 x 120 cm.
CC134
Induction du Jaune N°217, 2017
Paris
Acrylic paint on aluminum
Unique piece
120 x 120 cm.
CC175
Induction du Rose N°223 10KZ, 2018
Paris
Acrylic paint on aluminum
Unique piece
120 x 120 cm.
CC174
