Carlos Cruz-Diez (17 August 1923 – 27 July 2019) was a Venezuelan artist who played a central role in the development of Kinetic and Op art. His work focused on the perceptual and spacial experience of color, presenting it as an autonomous event rather than a descriptive tool.
Alongside Jesús Rafael Soto and Alejandro Otero, Cruz Diez helped shape Venezuela's modernist avant-garde. Beginning in the late 1950s, he developed several key series including the Physichromies, Chromointerférences, and Inductions Chromatiques, which aimed to liberate color from form and generate a participatory visual experience. His research positioned him among the most important figures in postwar abstraction.