Carlos Cruz-Diez
(Caracas, Venezuela, 1923 – Paris, France, 2019): Contemporary artist, regarded as one of the key 20th-century researchers in the realm of color. Because of the large scales of his latest artwork production stage, along with the development of custom technology for their realization, he opened in Panama the Articruz atelier in 2009, where he displayed his talents as a teacher and mentor for many young creators. With studies in applied arts, he developed a successful career as a graphic designer, but it wasn’t until the mid-1950s, in Paris, when his interest definitely steered toward the animation of pictorial surfaces. After returning to Venezuela, Cruz-Diez continued his investigation on color conceived as an autonomous reality. In this period, he would take his explorations of chromatic concepts applied to graphic and industrial design to the limit, while also teaching at the Universidad Central de Venezuela and the Cristóbal Rojas School of Arts. After definitely settling in France and opening his workshop, Atelier Cruz-Diez, the outcomes of his quests took on new and monumental proportions that drew even more attention to him in an international scope, through numerous interventions in urban spaces.
