In her review the researcher Gladys Yunes compares Jesús Rafael Soto’s work with the theories of quantum physics; her main objective is to show that the relationship between art and science has been explored throughout the twentieth century. From Cubism to Gabo’s and Pevsner’s Realist Manifesto, connections have been established between these two disciplines that have helped to shape those theoretical ideas. Referring to theories concerning relativity, space-time, and mass-energy, Yunes discusses aspects of the atomic world such as the wave-particle duality and the virtual and ambiguous nature of the microcosm by analyzing atomic physics theories and Werner Heisenberg’s “Uncertainty Principle.”

This essay by the researcher Gladys Yunes (b. 1951) sheds new light on the relationship between art and science in Jesús Rafael Soto’s work. In the first place, it establishes historical precedents that range from Cubism to Guillaume Apollinaire and Piet Mondrian, and on to the constructivist ideas of El Lisitski, Naum Gabo, Antoine Pevsner, and Jesús Soto, thus presenting a broad retrospective view of the subject. In the second place, Yunes examines the theoretical underpinnings of quantum physics which—though frequently mentioned by Soto and other art critics—are discussed in great details in this essay in order to suggest new ways of appreciating them. The author’s study of the likes of Stéphane Lupasco, Paul Davies, Max Planck, and Werner Heisenberg, among others, contributes significant depth to her essay by adding new comparisons between Soto’s work and physics, such as the wave-particle duality, the materialization and dematerialization of elements, the “Complementarity Principle,” the virtual and ambiguous nature of quantum processes, the “Uncertainty Principle,” and the fluctuating behavior of atomic particles.        

This essay was published in the catalogue for the exhibition Jesús Soto: la física, lo inmaterial, originally presented at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas and subsequently at the Museo de Arte Moderno Jesús Soto in Ciudad Bolívar from 1992 through 1993. This initiative was proposed by María Elena Ramos, who suggested that the exhibition should derive from a dual curatorial approach, based on both a scientific view (expressed by Yunes) and a philosophical one (articulated by Ramos). The essay also includes “La tercera navegación,” by Plinio Negrete, a professor of physics at the Universidad Central de Venezuela and professor of philosophy at the Universidad de Mérida, Venezuela.

To read other articles about Soto, see by Alfredo Boulton, both “El cinetismo de Soto” [doc. no. 1069749] and “Jesús Soto 1971” [doc. no. 1059661]; the essay by Ariel Jiménez “Jesús Soto. Lo visible y lo posible” [doc. no. 1073684]; the article by Alejandro Otero “Las estructuras cinéticas de Jesús Soto” [doc. no. 850667]; by Carlos Díaz Sosa “Jesús Rafael Soto: La gran pintura es cosa de progreso histórico” [doc. no. 1097076]; the article by Guillermo Meneses “Soto” [doc. no. 1080690)]; the one by various authors titled “Soto:estructuras cinéticas” [doc. no. 1059619]; the text by Umbro Apollonio “(Sin título) [in the catalogue “Vibrations by Soto” produced by The Kootz Gallery 1965]” [doc. no. 1069781]; the articles by Roberto Guevara “La energía como realidad” [doc. no. 1102332] and by Vladimir Tismaneanu “La metafísica del espacio en la obra de Soto” [doc. no. 1101524]; the interviews by Roberto Guevara “La nueva lectura de la realidad. Una conversación con el maestro Jesús Soto” [doc. no. 1059731], and by Claude-Louis Renard “Extractos de entrevistas de Soto [Paris, 1974]” [doc. no. 1080788]; the philosophical essay by Jacques Leenhardt “Soto” [doc. no. 1073536]; the essay by the French intellectual Gilles Plazy “Soto” [doc. no. 1101556]; the review by the Czech Frank Popper “(Sin título) [Jesús Rafael Soto...]” [doc. no. 1073597]; Soto’s autobiographical article, “Soto habla de Soto” [doc. no. 1080906]; and the script of the documentary by the same name, written by Clara Diament Sujo and produced by the cinematographer Ángel Hurtado, “Así nace un mural con Jesús Soto” [doc. no. 1168365].