About the Work
In actual fact, Jesús Rafael Soto's 'Vibration' stands still. It is the viewer who has to move for its shimmering, almost hypnotic effects to unfold to the full. The work consists of thin, pendulum-like wires lined up on the flat, finely striped surface. Mounted in front of that, in the middle, is an energetically tangled wire configuration. This arrangement changes its effect depending on the angle at which it is viewed. It was these optical effects in conjunction with material, structure, movement and light which fascinated the Venezuelan painter and sculptor during the 1960s. That was when he created the objects out of wood and wire which he called 'Vibration Pictures'. They show Soto's own particular variation on Op Art, at a time when the serial experiments of the 1950s were linked with the new kinetic art. The viewer participation that would later become part of the artwork in the walkable 'Penetrables' is already being applied here in 'Vibration'.
