Physicromie is what Carlos Cruz-Diez calls the collection of works that he has created since 1959, where he proposes a visual discourse about the spatial production of color. That is, color as an experience that takes place through the effects of reflection and irradiation produced by thin strips of color adhered to a surface by the edges. The interaction between the colored strips, the background, the ambient light, and the movement of the observer in front of the piece produces different perceptual experiences that create chromatic transformations. Thus, the term physiocromie is a new word used by the artist to emphasize the physical production of color. On various occasions, Cruz- Diez has said that these paintings are “light traps” with which one is able to experience the occurrence of color climates in real time and space, which change drastically depending on the movement of the observer and the illumination of the piece. In addition, the geometric shapes that appear before the observer are not colored forms, but chromatic areas produced by the accumulation of different patterns of color, depending on the distance or proximity between the different strips and the effects of addition, subtraction, or radiation with the background of the piece. Physichromie No. 965 is structured from areas of green, red, yellow, white, and black. It was created with aluminum sheets, a material which Cruz-Diez began to use in the mid-seventies after PVC sheets became scarce due to the oil crisis in 1975.
Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Carlos Cruz-Diez is an artist and color theorist . He has been widely recognized as one of the most representative figures of the kinetic art movement, which took hold in Europe in the mid-20th century. He received his degree as a teacher of Applied Arts at the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Caracas in 1940. He then started his artistic career as a painter of social themes, which he alternated with his work as an illustrator and designer of magazines and comic strips. In 1957 he created the Estudio de Artes Visuales, a graphic and industrial design studio based in Caracas. His work as a designer during those years was key to his later works, since his experience allowed him to conduct a series of investigations, starting in the mid-fifties, about the behavior of color in painting. The work of Cruz-Diez can be understood as a great theoretical and experimental thesis about the spatial production of color, in which the observer is an active participant. This position questions the pictorial tradition that understands color as a fixed property of matter. The artist has worked on this idea throughout his career in eight investigations that provide the names of his works. In the mid-seventies he began working on temporary interventions in urban spaces and in architectural integration. In 2005 his family created the Cruz-Diez Foundation to promote activities to publicize his work and protect the heritage that his artistic journey has created. In 2011 the Houston Museum of Fine Arts organized the largest retrospective exhibition of his work. His work is currently included in renowned public collections all over the world.
