Skip to main content

Carlos Cruz-Diez Mixed Media

b. 1923

For Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz-Diez (1923–2019), color was a dazzling, transient effect, which he attempted to capture on canvas and in light installations. The striking compositions he produced over his seven-decade career made him one of Latin America’s greatest postwar artists and a leading figure in the Op art movement.

“I don’t make paintings, nor sculptures. I make platforms for occurrences,” Cruz-Diez once said. “They are platforms where color is being produced, dissolved, generated in a perpetual instant. In it, there’s no notion of past nor future. In it is the notion of the present moment, just like life.”

Building on the chromatic explorations of Sir Isaac Newton, George Seurat and Josef Albers, he created striking paintings comprising lines of contrasting hues that appear to shimmer. He called these works physichromies.

Later in his career, Cruz-Diez shifted his explorations from paint to light. His “chromosaturations” are immersive environments consisting of three chambers, each flooded with a different-color light, which disoriented visitors and altered their perception. He also translated his chromatic illusions to public spaces, like the floor he created at the Simón Bolívar International Airport, near Caracas, and a pedestrian crossing outside the Broad Museum, in Los Angeles.

Cruz-Diez was a successful graphic designer as well, working for artist-clients like Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg. Across all these mediums, his work had the same boldness and immersive quality, engaging the viewer’s eyes, body and mind.

Browse Carlos Cruz-Diez's prints, sculptures and other art on 1stDibs.

to
1
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
1
1
26
271
267
150
141
1
2
Artist: Carlos Cruz-Diez
physichromie № 1.021
By Carlos Cruz-Diez
Located in Miami, FL
The Physichromie is a structure designed to reveal certain circumstances and conditions related to color, changing according to the movement of the viewer and the intensity of the li...
Category

1970s Op Art Carlos Cruz-Diez Mixed Media

Materials

Metal

Physichromie Nro 2549
By Carlos Cruz-Diez
Located in Miami, FL
Carlos Cruz-Diez (1923-2019) Carlos Cruz-Diez spent his life as a passionate painter and enjoyed a very colorful life. Born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1923, as a boy he loved drawing ...
Category

Early 2000s Kinetic Carlos Cruz-Diez Mixed Media

Materials

Metal

Related Items
Yves Klein Small IKB Venus Brooch Sculpture Jewel in International Klein Blue
By Yves Klein
Located in Paris, FR
Yves Klein, Small IKB Venus Brooch Bronze multiple, painted with International Klein Blue (IKB). From a model created in 1956. Edition of 500 copies + 100...
Category

1950s Carlos Cruz-Diez Mixed Media

Materials

Bronze, Gold Leaf

Yaacov Agam, Midnight Light, Kinetic work, polymorph.
By Yaacov Agam
Located in Tel Aviv, IL
Yaacov Agam, Midnight Light, polymorph, Kinetic art, Colored work, International artist, Israeli artist, Israeli art. Yaacov Agam’s polymorph is a unique example of geometric and kin...
Category

Late 20th Century Kinetic Carlos Cruz-Diez Mixed Media

Materials

Metal

Mangata 44 (small scale gold grid painting abstract wood floral op art)
By Melisa Taylor Metzger
Located in Quebec, Quebec
The series "Mångatas" explores the marriage of chance-derived gestures with exacting grid geometry. Built upon a multilayered convergence of aerosol painting and hard-edge technique...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Op Art Carlos Cruz-Diez Mixed Media

Materials

Spray Paint, Acrylic

Grey tinted Rainbow, Geometric Abstract dazzling Op Art Framed assemblage Signed
By Richard Anuszkiewicz
Located in New York, NY
RICHARD ANUSZKIEWICZ Grey Tinted Rainbow, 1992 Assemblage with 14 Color Silkscreen and Lithograph Pencil signed and numbered 11/40 on the front Frame included: elegantly framed in a ...
Category

1990s Op Art Carlos Cruz-Diez Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media, Pencil, Lithograph, Screen

Preparatory 3D artwork for a book cover - Bible cover by Agam
By Yaacov Agam
Located in New York, NY
This unique Agam art work is a preparation for the famous Torah book cover Agam published in 1992. It comes from a private collection of the famous Israeli artist Yitzhak Frenkel Fre...
Category

1990s Kinetic Carlos Cruz-Diez Mixed Media

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic Polymer, Cardboard

Mangata 28 (small scale gold grid painting abstract wood contemporary op art)
By Melisa Taylor Metzger
Located in Quebec, Quebec
The series "Mångatas" explores the marriage of chance-derived gestures with exacting grid geometry. Built upon a multilayered convergence of aerosol painting and hard-edge technique...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Op Art Carlos Cruz-Diez Mixed Media

Materials

Spray Paint, Acrylic

Jo Yarrington, Mute-Ability_Composition 1, 2019_acrylic, steel, player piano rol
By Jo Yarrington
Located in Darien, CT
Jo Yarrington’s photographs, prints, works on paper, glass sculptures and architecturally-based installations have been shown in exhibitions at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Yale University, Cornell University, the Museum of Glass, the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Artists Space, St. John the Divine Cathedral, Grounds for Sculpture, the Museum of American Glass and ODETTA, among others. International exhibitions have included Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow Cathedral, Glasgow University, Galeria Sala Uno and Centro de las Artes de Guanajuato. She represented the United States at the Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates and participated in the Berlin Biennial. in 2010 she received the Bronze Prize, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Macedonia. Yarrington is a recipient of artist grants and Fellowships from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. She has received Residency Fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Museum of Glass, the Museum of American Glass, the Bridge Virtual Residency/ SciArt Center, the Lucile Walton Fellow/Mountain Lake Biological Station, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Anderson Center and the Ucross Foundation, among others. International grants and fellowships have included the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity/Canada, SIMS Residency/ Iceland, Cill Rialaig Artists Residency/Ireland, the Burren College of Art Residency/Ireland and the American Scandinavian Foundation. She is a Professor of Visual and Performing Arts at Fairfield University and lives and works in New York City. STATEMENT In site-specific exhibitions, public art commissions, collaborative and individual projects Jo Yarrington has used varied combinations of glass, waxed surfaces, found artifacts and experimental analog photography to investigate the way we perceive – searching for, experimenting with and developing throughout a sensory-based vernacular. Her mostly translucent materials function as physical framework and symbolic membrane. Light, both natural and ambient, provides a kinetic or time-based element to her work. Scale and the integration of architecture are also pivotal components. In the 6-part installation for the two-person exhibition Illuminated, Yarrington continues her interest in the connections between vision, sound and language. In Mute-ability: Compositions 1 – 6, her title for this light-based comprehensive work, she combines the words mute and malleability. The work focuses on found piano rolls, a music storage medium, originally conceived as coded notations or ‘note control data’ for music produced in pneumatic player pianos...
Category

2010s Conceptual Carlos Cruz-Diez Mixed Media

Materials

Steel

A Grid like Marilyn
By Patrick Rubinstein
Located in Belfast, GB
A Grid like Marilyn Mixed Media 113 x 113 cm 44 1/2 x 44 1/2 in "I have always been fascinated by motion. What fascinates me with this craft is to capture the viewers attention. But...
Category

2010s Op Art Carlos Cruz-Diez Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

L'amour en rouge
By Patrick Rubinstein
Located in Rye, NY
Patrick Rubinstein is a French contemporary artist, born in 1960 in Paris. He belongs to the movement of Op Art and Kinetic art. He is the inventor of the movement Kinetic Pop Art,...
Category

2010s Kinetic Carlos Cruz-Diez Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media, Digital

L'amour en rouge
L'amour en rouge
$5,700
H 20.5 in W 20.5 in D 2 in
Op Art Bowl for Hirshhorn Museum, Limited Edition 1970s glazed enamel and metal
By Richard Anuszkiewicz
Located in New York, NY
Richard Anuszkiewicz Op Art Bowl for Hirshhorn Museum, 1976 Glazed Enamel on Metal Bowl. Artists Signature Fired in Plate Anuszkiewicz' signature fired ont...
Category

1970s Op Art Carlos Cruz-Diez Mixed Media

Materials

Metal, Enamel

Tout pour mon amour All my love
By Patrick Rubinstein
Located in Belfast, GB
Tout pour mon amour All my love Mixed Media 54 3/4 x 54 3/4 in 139 x 139 cm Unique "I have always been fascinated by motion. What fascinates me with this craft is to capture the vi...
Category

2010s Op Art Carlos Cruz-Diez Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Frost and decimals 2023.1 (small blue abstract wood dark minimalist painting)
By Melisa Taylor Metzger
Located in Quebec, Quebec
The series "Frost and Decimals" explores the marriage of color Fields with exacting geometry. Built upon a multilayered convergence of aerosol painting and hard-edge techniques on wo...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Op Art Carlos Cruz-Diez Mixed Media

Materials

Spray Paint, Acrylic

Previously Available Items
Physichromie n1855
By Carlos Cruz-Diez
Located in Palm Beach, FL
Chromographie on aluminium, unique
Category

2010s Abstract Carlos Cruz-Diez Mixed Media

Materials

Steel, Stainless Steel

Induction cromatica a double frequentai Panam 12
By Carlos Cruz-Diez
Located in Palm Beach, FL
Chromographie a pigment sur PVC
Category

2010s Abstract Carlos Cruz-Diez Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Carlos Cruz-diez mixed media for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Carlos Cruz-Diez mixed media available for sale on 1stDibs.

Artists Similar to Carlos Cruz-Diez

Questions About Carlos Cruz-Diez Mixed Media
  • 1stDibs ExpertMarch 22, 2022
    Carlos Cruz-Diez is known for his work in the Kinetic and Op art movements. The Venezuelan artist created innovative compositions featuring vibrant colors that seemed to move before the eye. Some of his most famous works include Transchromie, Fisicromía and Inducción cromática. Shop a collection of Carlos Cruz-Diez art on 1stDibs.
  • 1stDibs ExpertMarch 22, 2022
    Carlos Cruz-Diez used a wide range of materials to create his work. However, he is best known for crafting artwork out of aluminum. Following the oil crisis in 1975, he shifted to PVC sheeting. Shop a range of Carlos Cruz-Diez art on 1stDibs.
  • 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022
    Carlos Cruz-Diez is an artist in the op-art movement. He was inspired by the colors of Europe on a trip to France when he was younger, and would later infuse his art with the kinetic energy of colors. You can shop a selection of Carlos Cruz-Diez’s work from some of the world’s top art dealers on 1stDibs.

Recently Viewed

View All