In 1958, Industrias Kaiser Argentina (IKA), [an automobile maker] whose headquarters were in the province of Córdoba, launched the I Salón IKA [1st IKA Salon], aimed to give greater exposure to local artists and their work. The Salon was originally limited to artists from Córdoba, but in the four subsequent editions the scope was widened to include artists from other provinces as well. In 1961, IKA decided to expand the parameters of the event to include the whole country, and organized an international, biennial painting contest. These Latin American Art Biennials were not only promotional vehicles for IKA, they were also an expression of the company’s Pan-American policy, endorsed and promoted by the [Organization of American States] (OAS.) This article reports that both Earle Brown, the composer from the United States, and Jesús Rafael Soto, the Venezuelan kinetic artist, were at the 3rd Latin American Art Biennial, and goes on to discuss the overlapping interests that the two artists share in their respective artistic fields. Brown, for example, explores the concept of space in music and suggests that “the functional harmony is replaced by a dynamic that is driven by the pure sound quantity which cancels out the old notion of a single, static idea of time.” Soto, on the other hand, “brings movement into his painting, using the viewer’s perspective as an engine-generator to conquer the fourth dimension: time.” The article also includes the magazine’s interview with Jesús Rafael Soto, which focuses on attempts throughout the twentieth century to incorporate time into painting. Though he acknowledges that a number of artists and movements have tried to insert the fourth dimension into painting, and explains synthetically how this can be done based on the “Cézannian Revolution,” he insists that it has only ever been fully accomplished by kinetic art. He adds that this is “Latin American art’s contribution to the universal, as this is the first time that Latin American artists have added something to the history of art since the pre-Columbian period.”Earle Brown’s research into music and Soto’s exploration of painting were both profoundly relevant within the context of the 3rd Latin American Art Biennial. Brown was one of the most distinguished guests at the Primeras Jornadas Americanas de Música Experimental [First Latin American Experimental Music Workshops], organized by the Biennial and the Experimental Music Center at the University of Córdoba’s School of Arts. As for Soto, he was the winner of the grand prize at the 1964 Biennial, and was honored with a Special Salon at the 3rd installment of the event. Both the artist and kinetic art itself basked in the glow of yet another triumph when the latest grand prize was awarded to Carlos Cruz-Diez, who is also a kinetic artist.
