Patrick Rubinstein is a French contemporary artist. He belongs to the Op Art and kinetic art movements. He is the inventor of the Kinetic Op Art movement, which combines the technical principles of the optical arts with the theme of figuration in art. The success of this concept often overshadows the diversity of his work, which ranges from colourful figuration to geometric and poetic abstraction.
Patrick Rubinstein lives and works in Paris.
Patrick Rubinstein was born in Paris in 1960. His childhood left a lasting impression on him and would later nourish his artistic language. At the time, Paris was buzzing with British rock, American cinema and pop.
He grew up in a family with a deep interest in art. His mother gave him a passion for cinema, and his father an inventive mind. It was his father who first introduced him to the techniques of the kinetic arts. This introduction and his exposure to pop culture in his youth were to prove decisive in his future artistic creation.
Patrick Rubinstein founded the «Kinetic op art» movement, and is now considered one of the pioneers of kinetic art.
His artistic process is based on an innovative assemblage of strips on a pyramidal support. He cuts two images into strips, attaches them to a pyramidal structure and then folds them accordion-style to create works in relief.
From the front, these creations present a double image, with the two photos overlapping, but when viewed from different angles, the illusion is striking: only one of the two images appears. And so his three-dimensional “Two views” concept was born.
He devised a second process, called “Three views”, which consists of three images, one central and two lateral. The side views are created by strips inserted perpendicular to the central image. They offer two distinct images, on either side at 45°. This technique allows for a variation in perception through movement, and ensures that the central image is clearly visible.
With these two techniques, he fully involves the viewer in his creative process. His three-perspective paintings offer a captivating visual experience, encouraging the viewer to move around the work to explore all its facets. In this way, their participation becomes essential to the perception of the painting, fully engaging their experience.
The artist, in a perpetual quest for exploration, experiments constantly with shapes, colours, materials and movement, even pushing the boundaries as far as sculpture. His artistic freedom allows him to explore new horizons while remaining true to the essence of kineticism, offering his audiences ever-surprising artistic experiences.
A work of art is emotion...
… and emotion is what touches our deepest self,i
our memory.
Patrick Rubinstein
Gold plays a key role in the artist’s artistic eplorations. Carrying a strong symbolic charge, it is the main protagonist of his work. The yellow metal sublimates his paintings, bringing exceptional luminosity and a new kinetic vocation by creating new optical effects. Thanks to the gold leaf, the perception of the works changes according to the intensity of the light, its variation and its orientation. This phenomenon completes the kinetic effect in the change of perception of the artwork.
At the age of 18, he sold his first works. But it was not until many years later that the artist perfected his technique and artistic language, and today his art is internationally acclaimed.
His work is shown in numerous galleries around the world, as well as in museums such as POPA (Porrentruy Optical Art, Switzerland), the Maurice and Paul Marciano Foundation in Los Angeles and the Copelouzos Art Museum in Athens.
SOLEAD AGENCY