Francisco Sobrino Estate

b. Guadalajara, Spain, 1 January 1932, d. Bernay, France, 10 May 2014

Spanish-born artist Francisco Sobrino was a symbolic figure in kinetic art. Born in Spain in 1932, he left for Argentina in 1946, where he studied at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires. Alongside Julio Le Parc and François Morellet, he was one of the founding members of the Visual Art Research Group (GRAV) in Paris in 1960. Sobrino explored the use of new materials, and began working on his aluminium Structures permutationnelles; here, the mirror effect produced by the medium created interference between the work and its environment. Capturing and reflecting light, shape, and movement, the work fused with the surrounding architecture; creating virtual images which constantly shifted and metamorphosed, depending on where the viewer was standing.

In 2015, the Francisco Sobrino Museum was inaugurated in Guadalajara, Spain. The artist's works also feature among the collections of many prestigious institutions including the Tate in London, the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid.