Cayón is pleased to announce a new exhibition by SOTO (1923-2005) at its two Madrid spaces. This is the artist’s fifth project with the gallery and undoubtedly one of the most special.
This exhibition in Madrid has a very specific aim: to showcase only Soto’s work created with the incorporation of fine metallic elements in the shape of a T, which undoubtedly provoke the artist’s most vibrant, subtle, and ethereal works. This is the first time an exhibition has been dedicated exclusively to this type of work.
Thus, Soto, la T seeks to capture not a general view of Soto’s work, but rather an exclusive perspective that demonstrates, almost like no other line of work in his extensive and complex body of work, the artist’s intention represented in its highest expression of sublimated purity.
Spread across both spaces, 14 works will project Soto’s idea of light and the vibration of elements, formal concepts that primarily stem from his admiration for the Impressionists, whom he always saw as the fathers of modern art.
For the first time, the piece considered to be the first “T” will be exhibited—a small wooden piece (referred to as “log” in Soto’s language) made in 1961, which introduces the novel metallic element in the form of a ninety-degree angle. This time, it features a small nail distanced from the background by a wire. Over the years (specifically in the 1970s), the nail will disappear and be replaced by the fine metal created specifically to generate the work, its movement, and, for this reason, its spatial indefiniteness.
Sin título, 1961. SO201
The arrangement of Soto’s works created an effect where the pieces appear and disappear with the movement of the viewer, revealing an interstitial space: the vibration, the ebb and flow of the invisible and the visible, the material and the immaterial.
“The vibration is a relationship that exists beyond the elements
(…)
But it is through these elements that I can demonstrate their evidence”
The T’s were first exhibited in the creator’s retrospective in Caracas in 1971, and since then they have been part of his body of work, quickly being accepted as an incredibly effective solution to the disintegrative intention
Soto exhibits his best when he seeks a uniform image across the entire surface, as in his series of T’s, where rows of elements in that shape, evenly spaced, project from the bare background and create a burst of vibrations (David Bourdon, 1974).
Side view: Tes avec bord rose, 1985. SO207
The project, which coincides with Apertura 2024, has a conceptual continuity with the exhibition held last summer in our Menorcan space.
The exhibitions in Menorca and Madrid are therefore not a continuation, but rather a complement to one another. Thanks to the nearly 75 pieces displayed across our two locations, visitors will be able to gain a deeper understanding of the work of this artist who transformed the way of seeing and, above all, experiencing the artwork.
Triface avec mauve,1991. SO210
Since his fundamental retrospective held at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1974 and after his individual participation in the Venezuelan Pavilion at the 32nd Venice Biennale in 1964, his work has been recognized in dozens of solo exhibitions, including: Palacio Velázquez (Madrid) and Miró Foundation (Barcelona), 1982; Musée Soulages (Rodez), 2015; or Guggenheim (Bilbao), 2019.
Soto’s work is part of the permanent collection of prominent international museums such as the Tate Gallery in London, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, and the Helga de Alvear Museum of Contemporary Art, Cáceres.
