Carlos Cruz-Diez
Cromosaturación

Cromosaturación

© Carlos Cruz-Diez Foundation

Cromosaturación
Cromosaturación
ArtistVenezuelan, 1923–2019
CultureVenezuelan
Titles
  • Cromosaturación
  • Chromosaturation
Date1965/2004
MediumThree chromo-cubicles (fluorescent light with blue, red, and green filters)
DimensionsOverall: 96 × 362 × 204 in. (243.8 × 919.5 × 518.2 cm)
(each cubicle): 120 × 120 in. (304.8 × 304.8 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Cruz-Diez Foundation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Object number2009.464
Non exposé

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Object Type
Description

Chromosaturation is an artificial habitat created by three different color chambers: one red, one green, and one blue. The habitat envelops whomever enters in a totally tri-stimulus environment. The chromatic ambience created by these booths modifies the spectator’s perception of everything in the room, changing skin color, clothing, and objects. As one moves from color chamber to color chamber, the reminder of the previous visual saturation shocks the retina.


As the artist himself explains, “Chromosaturation chambers—or labyrinths—are a series of experiments that I have presented many times. When installed on sidewalks and in museums, schools, and galleries, they reach broad audiences, stimulating perceptions of color. Contrary to nature, in which color is 'relative' and thus altered by its environment, color here is revealed in its 'crude' state.


"The disruption created by such a monochromatic experience—in the spectator’s retina, accustomed as it is to seeing a broad spectrum of colors—acts as a detonator. This, in turn, leads the spectator to the idea that color is a material, physical situation, and to an awareness that color exists in space without the help of form, and in fact with no support at all, regardless of existing cultural conventions.”


ProvenanceThe artist; Cruz-Diez Foundation; donated to MFAH, 2009.
Exhibition History"Inverted Utopias: The Avant-Garde in Latin America, 1920–1970," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, June 20–September 12, 2004.

"Color into Light: Selections from the MFAH Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, December 13, 2008–March 22, 2009.

"North Looks South: Building the Latin American Art Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, June 7–September 27, 2009.

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