User:Hannahbreakwell/Patrick Rubinstein

Patrick Rubinstein (1960) is a French Pop and Kinetic artist. He lives and works in Paris. His work belongs to the movement of Op Art and is the founder of the Kinetic Pop Art movement, combining the technical principles of optical arts and the theme of figuration in art.

Early Life: 1960-1976
Patrick Rubinstein was born in Paris in 1960. His parents both played a large part in forming his interest in art, his mother was a passionate cinephile and took him to see countless films which sparked his interest in composition, light and illusion. While his father was a painter and art collector and introduced the young Patrick to a range of avant-garde optical and kinetic techniques which were at the forefront of French art at the time. His other formative experiences included visits to museums and galleries which led him to admire the works of Soto, Warhol, Diez, Vasarely, Lichtenstein and Basquiat amongst others, but also the great masters of the 20th century.

First Optical Works: 1977-1981
Fascinated by Yacov Agam’s accordion optical process, Rubinstein created his first optical works in 1977. Choosing to focus on portraiture rather that geometric abstraction which was a more typical subject of artists working in Paris at the time, he built a series of pieces featuring two members of the same family and exploring their similarities and singularities.

The World of Fashion: 1981-2006
Rubinstein began his career in the fashion industry, which taught him about the constant evolution of style. He spent his working life creating collections which were driven by vibrant colour and this period proved seminal to his training. He continued to study art and technique alongside working as an artist in his spare time, this helped to refine his technique in the fields of precision kinetics and optical illusion.

Constructivism: 2007-2009
2007 was a pivotal year. After substantial interest in his artistic experiments from collectors and galleries, Rubinstein made the decision to quit the fashion world and to become a professional artist. His first works were influenced by Russian Constructivist photographers, who used geometric primary forms and arranged them into a harmonious compositions. Rejecting the decorative in favour of the urban and industrial, the abstract austerity of these works formed the basis on which he began to build his own ideas of communication and colour.

Kinetic Pop Art: 2009-2015
Rubinstein began to fuse optical art techniques and pop art aesthetics. Revisiting the universe of his youth, he tapped into the cinematographic iconography and Pop-Rock culture of the ‘60s and ‘70s. The resulting images were resolutely colourful and evocative of both a positive attitude and a desire to transmit universal messages.

Pioneering Kinetic Works: 2016
The step towards incorporating metal foils marked a significant change in Rubinstein’s work, as they allowed him to create a whole new range of optical effects. The initial idea was inspired by his study of the ‘outrenoir (beyond black) works of Pierre Soulages. Through a year of experimentation and exploration he developed a new way of working in which changes of perception no longer occurred solely as a result of movement, but also through the orientation and variation of natural light.

Op Art: 2017-Present Day
In 2017 Rubinstein returned home, metaphorically speaking, to the founders of op art where his interest began. While not renouncing the concept and tenets of kinetic pop art, he directed his attention towards a poetic abstraction, allowing movement, space and geometry to become the driving forces behind his work. His palette became increasingly monochromatic with contrasting use of metallic leaves such a gold, aluminium and copper leaf, this created optical effects never seen before in Op art.