Page 13 - Studio International - January 1966

Three views of Infinite Vibration 1965
Suspended nylon construction 10 x 10 in.
Collection: David Medalla, London

As he moves sideways the two grids tend to 'slide' in as the spectator moves, however slightly) by the
front of the eye, and the alteration is sufficient to leave regular grid against which they stand out. From now on
an impression on the retina. the whole of the artist's work—the elegance, purity
However, the decisive revolution took place in 1955 and sobriety of which are reminiscent of Gabo, in spite
in the shape of a final transition from optical art—in of the difference in vocabulary—is devoted to a
which the composition can be grasped instantaneously questioning of normal concepts of matter. He has now
without movement—to real, kinetic art in which reached a peak in expressing the molecular explosion
movement, and consequently duration, are directly of solids, the dematerialisation of volumes; intuitively
involved and form a fundamental constituent dimension he has come close to the concepts of modern physics.
of the work. In April, Soto saw Marcel Duchamp's There now appears in the work of Soto—especially in
'optical machine', a convex form against which a spiral his Ecritures (Writings) in which great, bent stalks,
shape—driven by a motor—rotates. He decided to immaterial and irregular in outline, merge into his black
make the composition move without a motor, and in and white grids—a principle which was already latent
the same year exhibited at Denise Rene's his first in his earlier compositions but which takes on growing
'kinetic vibration' : two spirals—one of them of importance after 1963 until it is now very nearly the
transparent plexiglass—are superimposed and separated sole centre of interest of the artist: the creation of
by about 15 centimetres. When the viewer moves something which the Venezuelan critic Guillermo
sideways, the lines join and separate turn by turn, the Meneses defined as 'imaginary space.'
masses link and draw apart. This is a work of basic Paul Klee habitually confronted in his paintings
importance in which two fundamental problems are different perspectives and contradictory patterns of
resolved at one and the same time: 1, the problem of lines in order to represent on the flat surface of his
movement—as I said earlier, time is added to the three composition an idea of vertiginous, baffling space,
plastic dimensions and the work cannot be interpreted beyond the bounds of logical comprehension, over
without the concept of duration ; 2, the problem of which the eye wandered as in a dream, unable to find
destruction of form, of dilution of matter, since as the the landmarks of real life. However, this deliberate
spectator moves the volumes recorded by the artist destruction of spatial order was communicated to us
alter incessantly. through the intermediary of a sheet of paper or canvas
This is the point of departure for all of Soto's later which itself fitted in perfectly well with our normal
work; there is from now on a growing tendency to idea of space. With our feet firmly on the ground in a
lessen the impact of matter and disintegrate forms. In gallery or apartment we looked at the translation, on a
1957 he completed the development of the plastic surface which fitted in perfectly well with our normal,
system which becomes a permanent feature of his spatial universe, of a malaise or hallucination imagin-
artistic vocabulary : a panel covered with small, regular atively experienced by the artist, which he was able
black and white lines in front of which are fixed—at a to set out through his paintings in everyday spatial
distance of a few centimetres—wires, metal bars, reality—a reality which was never questioned, since
squares of different colours, which are broken up the artist's plastic compositions fell within the reassur-
optically (according to a pattern which differs as soon ing framework of fiction.