Jesus Rafael Soto

Horizontal Movement

1963

© ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2022

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In Tate St Ives

Modern Conversations: Modern Landscape: Marlow Moss

Artist: Jesus Rafael Soto 1923–2005
Original title: Mouvement horizontal
Medium: Oil paint on chipboard, nylon thread and iron rod
Dimensions: Object: 625 × 525 × 165 mm (not including iron rod)
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1964
Reference: T00649

Display caption

As the spectator passes this work, an optical effect causes the background of black
and white lines to vibrate and flicker. Soto described Horizontal Movement as ‘one
of the first truly mobile works that I had made’, referring to the addition of an iron
rod that hangs in front of the lines. As in all his works the background lines are
drawn by hand.

Gallery label, September 2004

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Catalogue entry

Jésus-Rafael Soto born 1923

T00649 Mouvement horizontal (Horizontal Movement) 1963

Not inscribed
Oil-bound distemper on chipboard with nylon thread and iron rod, 24 5/8 x 20 7/8 x 6 1/2 (62.5 x 53 x 16.5)
Purchased from the artist through Paul Keeler and the Redfern Gallery (Grant-in-Aid) 1964
Exh: Structures Vivantes, Galerie Diderot, Paris, April-May 1963 (works not listed); Soundings One, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, January-February 1964 (99 as 'Summer Solstice' or 100 as 'Spring Equinox'); Structures Vivantes, Redfern Gallery, London, March 1964 (30) as 'Vibration III'
Lit: exh. catalogue The Achievements of Jésus-Rafael Soto 1950-1965: 15 Years of Vibrations, Signals London, London, October-December 1965 (but not exhibited), n.p., detail repr.; Signals, 1, No.10, November-December 1965, p.21 (detail repr. in colour, with rod reproduced incorrectly in blue)
Repr: exh. catalogue Soto, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York, October-November 1969, p.13 (not exhibited)

There is a label on the back with the title 'Mouvement horizontal' and date February 1963.

The artist wrote on 10 May 1965 that it was conceived for the exhibition Structures Vivantes at the Galerie Diderot in 1963. 'It is one of the first truly mobile works that I made after the virtual mobiles with the superimpositions. As a development of this theme I am working at this moment on pictures with a large number of hanging rods.'

Published in:
Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.697, reproduced p.697