Julio Le Parc

Julio Le Parc is an Argentinian artist best known for his pioneering works of Kinetic Art. Many of his paintings predate the Op Art movement, depicting labyrinthine spaces using optical illusions and mirrored surfaces. “I wanted to leave aside sentimentality to allow access to people who had no history, to involve them,” he once reflected. “I was attacking the static nature of artworks. But, more importantly, I was attacking the idea of the extraordinary artist.” Born on September 23, 1928, in Mendoza, Argentina, he attended the School of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires before moving to Paris in 1958. Le Parc, along with Yvaral, reacted to the expressive approach of Tachisme and CoBra artists like Karel Appel and Jean Dubuffet by creating a controlled sensorial experience for the viewer. In 1966, Le Parc received the Grand Prize in Painting at the 33rd Venice Biennale. 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 Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Tate Gallery in London, among others.