This book examines pioneering Latin American kinetic artists who helped develop kinetic art into an international movement. Kinesthesia: Latin American Kinetic Art, 1954–1969 examines the influential and visually stunning work of South American kinetic artists.

While Southern California was becoming the North American epicenter for Light and Space art in the 1960s, separate yet closely related technical experiments had been unfolding in a handful of major cities of South America, as well as in Paris, the European center for kinetic art. Kinesthesia highlights the broad differences that emerged among the two principal South American centers of activity: Argentina, where kinetic art grew out of local debates about painting; and Venezuela, where pioneering notions of modern architecture stimulated a synthesis of art and design.

Featured in this volume are kinetic sculptures and installations by Jesús Rafael Soto, Julio Le Parc, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Martha Boto, and others, as well as essays that explore the history of this movement, examine the artists’ reception by European and American audiences in the context of the Cold War, and link their achievements to 21st-century artists and their work.