
Between 1950 and 1957, Horacio García Rossi studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, along with Hugo Demarco, Julio Le Parc, and Francisco Sobrino. In 1959, he moved to Paris, where he participated in the first Paris Biennial. In his earliest works, García Rossi explored the problem of multiplication of a form and the perception of movement in two-dimensional works, using only black, white, and gray. However, in the early-1960s, he began to introduce the use of projection screens and lighting into his structures.
In Paris, García Rossi co-founded the Centre de Recherche d’Art Visuel (CRAV), along with Francisco García Miranda, Julio Le Parc, Francisco Sobrino, François Molnar, Sergio Moyano Servanes, Yvaral, Jöel Stein, Hugo Demarco, and François Morellet. CRAV dissolved shortly after forming, and was restructured as the Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV). As art historian Jacqueline Barnitz has written, “The GRAV artists believed that art should be based on ‘scientific’ investigation of the physical properties of vision and statistics and probabilities, as the means through which they could best achieve their political and philosophical goals.” GRAV created interactive, labyrinthine structures that viewers could walk through and interact with, using industrial materials such as aluminum, Plexiglas, mirrors, and lights.” In 1964, GRAV was included in the III Documenta Kassel and in the exhibition Lumiere et mouvement, organized by the Musée d’Art modern de París in 1967.
After the dissolution of GRAV in 1968, he returned to two-dimensional problems and simple structures, and he dedicated his work to the interactions between light and color. He also began to incorporate letters and words in his work. In 1989, the Centro Cultural de Arte Contemporáneo in Brescia, Italy, held a survey exhibition of his work. He has been included in numerous important surveys of the kinetic art movement
García Rossi died in 2012 in Paris.
2015: Un tournant | A turning point: Antonio Asis, Martha Boto, Horacio García Rossi, Hugo De Marziani, Gregorio Vardanega, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
2013: Una visión otra: G.R.A.V. 1960/1968, Tamayo Museum of Contemporary Art, Mexico City, Mexico
Retrospective, Brescia, Italy
2012: Real/Virtual, Arte Cinético Argentino en los Años Sesenta, National Museum of Fine Arts, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Dynamo, Grand Palais, Paris, France
2008: García Rossi and le GRAV, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
2007: Lo[s] Cinético[s], Museo Nacional Centro de Art Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
2006: Hugo Demarco, Horacio García Rossi, Francisco Sobrino, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
1968: Plus by Minus, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA
Cinétisme Spectacle Environnement, Maison de la Culture, Grenoble, France
1965: The Responsive Eye, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY, USA
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA
Casa de las Américas, Havana, Cuba
Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris, France
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., USA
Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Cholet, France
Musée de Montbéliard, Montbéliard, France
Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Museo Civico de Maserata, Italy
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), TX, USA
Museum of Taiwan, Taiwan
Museumgegenstandsfreier Kunst, Otterndorf, Germany
Pinacoteca di Urbino, Urbino, Italy
Satoru Sato Art Museum, Tome, Japan
University Museum, Parma, Italy