Julio Le Parc (Argentina 09/23/1928 -)
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About
Le Parc is an Argentina-born artist who focuses on both modern op art and kinetic art. Le Parc attended the School of Fine Arts in Argentina. A founding member of Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV) and award-winning artworks, he is a significant figure in Argentinean modern art.
orn in Mendoza, Argentina, in 1928, Le Parc studied under Lucio Fontana during the 1940s and engaged with abstract avant-garde movements in Buenos Aires. In 1958, Le Parc moved to Paris, where his encounter with Op artists, such as Victor Vasarely, had an important influence on his art. The series of gouaches Le Parc started that year—intimate yet methodical studies of form and color—illuminates his interest in developing geometric abstraction by incorporating movement through variations, sequences, and progressions. This work anticipates his founding role in Kinetic art during the 1960s, when he made paintings and sculptures with movable parts by incorporating mirrors, motors, and electric light.
Le Parc has continued his use of light and kinetics. However, "in the 1970s, Le Parc's artistic activities became less frequent, to the degree that his work almost went unnoticed in the international arena for several decades". Nonetheless, with a renewed interest in using light as a medium, Le Parc's work is being brought to the attention of a wider public.
In 2004 he produced with Yvonne Argenterio in the Elettrofiamma workshops, Italy, a series of sculptures (Torsions) presented at the event "Verso la Luce", in the Castle of Boldeniga (Brescia, Italy). The monumental sculpture "Verso la Luce" is still visible in the castle garden. He received a one-man show at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2013. He is socially committed to immersive art.
In 2016, Le Parc was the subject of his first solo museum exhibition in North America, “Form in Action,” which opened at the Pérez Art Museum Miami and included over 100 works. The artist currently lives and works in Cachan, France.
Today, his works are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Tate Gallery in London, among others.
orn in Mendoza, Argentina, in 1928, Le Parc studied under Lucio Fontana during the 1940s and engaged with abstract avant-garde movements in Buenos Aires. In 1958, Le Parc moved to Paris, where his encounter with Op artists, such as Victor Vasarely, had an important influence on his art. The series of gouaches Le Parc started that year—intimate yet methodical studies of form and color—illuminates his interest in developing geometric abstraction by incorporating movement through variations, sequences, and progressions. This work anticipates his founding role in Kinetic art during the 1960s, when he made paintings and sculptures with movable parts by incorporating mirrors, motors, and electric light.
Le Parc has continued his use of light and kinetics. However, "in the 1970s, Le Parc's artistic activities became less frequent, to the degree that his work almost went unnoticed in the international arena for several decades". Nonetheless, with a renewed interest in using light as a medium, Le Parc's work is being brought to the attention of a wider public.
In 2004 he produced with Yvonne Argenterio in the Elettrofiamma workshops, Italy, a series of sculptures (Torsions) presented at the event "Verso la Luce", in the Castle of Boldeniga (Brescia, Italy). The monumental sculpture "Verso la Luce" is still visible in the castle garden. He received a one-man show at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2013. He is socially committed to immersive art.
In 2016, Le Parc was the subject of his first solo museum exhibition in North America, “Form in Action,” which opened at the Pérez Art Museum Miami and included over 100 works. The artist currently lives and works in Cachan, France.
Today, his works are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Tate Gallery in London, among others.