Francisco Sobrino was born in Guadalajara, Spain, in 1932. From 1946 to 1949 he studied at the Escuela de Arte y Oficios, Madrid, before moving to Argentina, where he attended in the National Fine Arts School, Buenos Aires, until 1957. In 1959 he moved to Paris and began to explore visual art, pursuing studies concerning the structure and dynamics of form, as well as color and perception.

His work from this period was predominately black and white, depicting methodical shape progressions with optical effects. In 1960, along with Julio Le Parc, François Morellet and others, he formed the Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV), active in Paris until 1968. The group’s ethos centred on emphasising the social func...