Coinciding with APERTURA 2021, Galería Cayón is proud to present Cruz-Diez: Color as Action across its two Madrid locations. The exhibition features a selection of works from our recent show in Menorca and marks a particularly meaningful moment for us. It is, without a doubt, the most special presentation since we began representing Carlos Cruz-Diez (Caracas, 1923 – Paris, 2019) nearly fifteen years ago.
On this occasion, our Madrid spaces will host a selection of ten works created between 2008 and 2019—a period that Cruz-Diez considered his most fruitful. He often said that, in these later years—and after more than half a century of research and the incorporation of new media and technical advances—he had finally achieved the chromatic subtlety he had been determinedly pursuing since 1959.
The exhibition can therefore be seen as a compendium of the lines of inquiry that defined his artistic practice.
Cruz-Diez was convinced that demonstrating the “autonomy of color” could only be achieved—true to the didactic and scientific spirit that always defined him—through multiple lines of work, all equally valid and important; in fact, all essential.
The exhibition includes Physichromies, which require the viewer to move in order to activate the work and create the visual experience through their own motion; Chromointerférences, which explore chromatic variations created by the interaction of colors; Inductions Chromatiques, which allow colors not physically present on the surface to emerge; and even a Labyrinthe de Transchromie, where Cruz-Diez, driven by his deep interest in the viewer’s role as an active participant, challenges the spectator’s vision—inviting them to see and feel through overlapping layers of color.
All of these works share a single, exclusive aim—one so ambitious that it can only be singular. In the artist’s own words, from his final interview given just a few months before his passing:
“[At the beginning of my research] I understood that color is never a certainty—it is always circumstantial. That’s when the chromatic phenomenon revealed itself to me as an autonomous reality, one that evolves continuously through time and space. My works transcend both, as in them, color becomes a present moment, with no past and no future.”
Indeed, Carlos Cruz-Diez shows us through this exhibition that color is an autonomous entity—one that we must not only see (as we so often overlook it), but also learn to live with and truly feel.
With the aim of presenting Cruz-Diez’s lines of research and involving the viewer in the creation of the artwork alongside the artist, the gallery invites visitors to wander through the piece Labyrinthe de Transchromie A (1965–2017). By moving through the work, they can observe the various color combinations that emerge as they look through the planes of color. This represents a reinterpretation of the piece, as Transchromie is now displayed in a space with uninterrupted walls, allowing viewers to perceive chromatic blends that differ significantly from those seen in the large hall of the former Cine Victoria in Mahón.
His work is part of the permanent collections of some of the world’s most prestigious museums, including Tate Modern, London; The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among many others. Carlos Cruz-Diez was selected to represent France at Expo 2020 Dubai, postponed due to the pandemic and rescheduled to open in October 2021.
Most recently, between March and June, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid held an exhibition titled El peso de la forma (“The Weight of Form”), which showcased part of his graphic design work up to 2015.
To coincide with the Menorca exhibition, a catalogue has been published featuring the last interview the artist gave, just a few months before his passing. Conducted by renowned curator Jérôme Sans, the conversation spans over 50 years of Cruz-Diez’s creative journey, offering key insights into his work and his research into color. Born in 1960, Sans has curated more than 300 exhibitions, co-founded the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and has developed his career across Europe, the United States, and Asia.
