Julio Le Parc (b. 1928, Mendoza, Argentina) lives and works in Paris, France. Le Parc attended the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires in 1943 where he became interested in Arte Concreto-Invencion and the Spaziliasmo movement. In 1958, Le Parc went to Paris on a French government scholarship and settled there working on works of art related to research into three dimensions, movement and light as it pertains to the kinetic arts. Victor Vasarely's 1958 exhibition in Buenos Aires became an important catalyst for Le Parc's career, while in Paris Le Parc pursued collaborative work with fellow artist friends of Vasarely and studied the writings of Mondrian, evolving his practice to reflect on the tradition of Constructivism. Le Parc represented Argentina at the 1966 Venice Biennale, he won the Grand International Prize for Painting as an individual artist. Le Parc had begun working on two-dimensional compositions in colour and black and white as early as 1953, while he was still an art teacher in Buenos Aires. From 1960, however, he began to develop a series of distinctive works that made use of 'skimming' light: these objects, usually constructed with a lateral source of white light which was reflected and broken up by polished metal surfaces, combined a high degree of intensity with a subtle expression of continuous movement.
Read MoreCelebrated for what he calls 'disturbances in the artistic system,' Julio Le Parc is among the progenitors of the Op Art, or Kinetic Art, movement, who posits a utopian vision for art and society through his perceptually illusory paintings, sculptures, and immersive installations. As co-founder of the Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel (Visual Art Research Group) (1960–68), he worked to break down the boundaries between art and the viewer. In his words: 'I have tried [...] to elicit a different type of behavior from the viewer [...] to seek, together with the public, various means of fighting off passivity, dependency or ideological conditioning, by developing reflective, comparative, analytical, creative or active capacities.' Parc accomplishes this through colour, line, light, shadow, and movement, composed to make still forms seem to move, solid structures seem to dematerialise, and light itself seem plastic.
Le Parc's works have been the subject of numerous solo shows in Europe and Latin America, including Instituto di Tella (Buenos Aires), Museo de Arte Moderno (Caracas), Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico), Casa de las Americas (Havana), Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Daros (Zürich), Städtische Kunsthalle (Düsseldorf). Le Parc's works have also been included in numerous group exhibitions and biennials, including MoMA's controversial exhibition The Responsive Eye (1965), the Venice Biennale in 1966 (where he was awarded the Prize), and the São Paulo Biennial (1967). As acts of protest against the repressive military regime in Brazil, he joined artists in boycotting the 1969 São Paulo Biennial and published an alternative Contrabienal catalogue in 1971. Le Parc's later collective works included participation in anti-fascist movements in Chile, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Recently, he has been the subject of major retrospectives including Julio Le Parc (Serpentine Gallery, London, UK, 2014); Soleil froid (Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France); Le Parc lumière (Casa Daros, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2013; MALBA, Bueno Aires, Argentina, 2014); A constant quest (Galeria Nara Roesler, São Paulo, Brazil, 2013); and included in the group exhibition Dynamo (Grand Palais, Paris, France, 2013).
Text courtesy Galeria Nara Roesler.
Ocula Feature Julio Le Parc: nostalgia for optimism By Anna Kats, Miami Julio Le Parc: Form into Action, the first stateside museum retrospective of Argentine artist Le Parc's oeuvre, opened 18 November 2016 against an increasingly reactionary political backdrop. The show's run, through 19 March 2017 at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), has thus far corresponded with the rise to power of a conservative agenda, more...
Ocula Conversation Daniel Roesler São Paulo Founded in São Paulo in 1989, Galeria Nara Roesler is one of the most established contemporary art galleries in Brazil. The gallery has played an important role in establishing a dialogue between Brazil and Latin America's historical artists and a generation of contemporary artists as well as introducing Brazilian artists to a wider...
Related Press ProyectosLA, Fair-Exhibition Hybrid Timed to Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, Reveals Artists, Title 10 August 2017, ARTnews Luiza Teixeira de Freitas and Claudia Segura, the curators behind proyectosLA, an upcoming fair-exhibition hybrid that will coincide with the Getty Foundation's Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative, have announced the names of the 62 participating artists, including Marta Minujín, Julio Le Parc, Amalia Ulman, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Carmen Argote...
Related Press Politics and commerce collide at Art Basel Miami Beach 6 December 2016, The New York Times Even the small talk was more solemn at this year’s edition of Art Basel Miami Beach. On opening day of what is America’s largest fair of contemporary art and Champagne-steeped hedonism, the air kisses were shadowed by the challenges the presidency of Donald J. Trump might pose to an art world that likes to imagine itself as a force for...
Related Press ‘Julio Le Parc: Form into Action’, Pérez Art Museum, Miami — review 2 December 2016, Financial Times Le Parc believed—and still believes—that the distance between art and audience needs to be dispensed with. His interest is not in the authenticity of the object but of the value of the encounter. The bits of mirror and mechanisms here are almost all new, replaced as the older versions of the works lost their sheen and reflectivity.
Related Press Julio Le Parc and Art That Won’t Stand Still 16 November 2016, The New York Times PARIS—The suburban Paris home studio of the Argentine artist Julio Le Parc, widely considered a pioneer of Op Art and Kinetic Art, is a circus of hands-on—sometimes anarchic—delights. In one of a series of rooms surrounding an overgrown courtyard, the artist’s motorised 'contorsions' come to life when a switch is flipped, and their rotating arms...
Related Video & Audio Julio Le Parc 'Bifurcations' 30 November 2017, Perrotin Julio Le Parc Bifurcations October 14–December 23, 2017 Perrotin Paris Film by Nikolaï Saoulski © 2017
Related Video & Audio TALK JULIO LE PARC & JEAN DE LOISY 29 November 2017, Perrotin Talk between Julio Le Parc & Jean de Loisy on the occasion of Julio le Parc's exhibition BIFURCATIONS at Perrotin Paris Tuesday November 14, 2017
