Incliné bleu et noir [Tilted Blue and Black]

A leading figure in the Kinetic and Op art movements, Jesús Rafael Soto investigated ways to dynamically engage the viewer. In this piece, which Soto produced while living in Paris, he suspended a blue and black rod in front of a panel of thinly painted white lines. When the visitors move in front of the work, their changing view of the rod against the striped background generates optical effects along the rod’s tilted edges that ripple with vibrations.