“The Kinetic Eye: Optical and Kinetic Art, 1950–1975”
Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain
1, Place Hans Jean Arp
May 13–September 25, 2005
Curated by Emmanuel Guigon and Arnauld Pierre
The great public success of MoMA’s 1965 exhibition “The Responsive Eye” turned out to be a first-class burial for kinetic art, which did not survive the populist celebration of its optical tricks. Five years ago Guy Brett reopened the dossier (in “Force Fields,” for London’s Hayward Gallery and the Museu d’Arte Contemporani de Barcelona), reminding us that there is far more to kineticism than mere gadgetry. “The Kinetic Eye” intends to reexamine Op’s illusionist trend, while also paying tribute to kineticism’s physical and acoustic stimuli. Some sixty artists active in the ’50s and ’60s are represented, and two rooms are dedicated to contemporary works and even to nineteenth-century pioneers.