Gego
Gego
Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt) was born on August 1, 1912, to a liberal Jewish banking family in Hamburg, Germany. She studied under Paul Bonatz at the University at Stuttgart, where she graduated with an architecture and engineering degree in 1938. As a student she was influenced by the innovations of the Bauhaus, a creative laboratory of design that operated for over two decades in pre-Hitler Germany. She was forced to leave Germany shortly after finishing her degree and immigrated to Venezuela in 1939. There she worked as a graphic designer and operated her own furniture workshop. She became a Venezuelan citizen in 1952 and lived there for the remainder of her life.
In 1953, Gego began to develop her artistic practice full-time. Encouraged by the support of Alejandro Otero and Jesús Rafael Soto, she began to create three-dimensional works in 1956. During these three years, Gego operated in the margins of the Venezuelan kinetic and op art movements, and continued to study mathematics, architecture, and philosophy. In 1957 Gego participated in the exhibition Arte abstracto en Venezuela and by 1959 the Museum of Modern Art in New York had begun acquiring her work. She lived in New York briefly in 1960 and made several extended visits to the United States until 1967. In New York, she attended the Pratt Institute, where she took engraving and printmaking classes. She also worked in the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles before returning to Venezuela in 1967. For most of her career, she worked at a home studio in Caracas, creating a prolific and varied oeuvre consisting of sculptures and works on paper. She died in Caracas on September 17, 1994.
Recent solo exhibitions of Gego’s work include Gego: Between Transparency and the Invisible, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2005), and The Drawing Center, New York (2007); Gego: Defying Structures, Museu de Arte Contemporánea de Serralves, Porto; and Gego: Line as Object, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, and Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (2013). Her work is in the collections of, among others, The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas; Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas; New York Public Library, New York; and Tate Modern, London.
Selected Works
Video
Gego: Autobiography of a Line at Dominique Lévy London
March 22, 2017
May 25 – July 30, 2016
Dominique Lévy presents Gego: Autobiography of a Line, the second in a pair of exhibitions celebrating the legacy of German-born Venezuelan artist Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt [1912 – 1994]). Organised in collaboration with the Fundación Gego, Autobiography of a Line is the artist’s first solo exhibition in London, and includes a selection of works spanning her career. Notably, three monumental sculptures made in the 1970s, which embody the palpable sense of entropic geometry and spatial play for which Gego’s work is internationally recognised, will be on view. These sculptures find their parallel in the artist’s towering wire Chorros, which were displayed in the New York exhibition last autumn. Also in the London instalment are a selection of ink drawings on paper and late works that complicate and question the relationship between drawing and sculpture such as Dibujos sin papel (Drawings without paper), Acuarelas (Watercolours), and Tejeduras (Weavings). The exhibition includes loans from the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH), and the Fundación Gego.
Exhibitions
Museum Exhibitions
Gego
Gego
Gego
Museu de Arte de São Paulo
Gego: a linha emancipada
December 13, 2019 - March 1, 2020
Art Institute Chicago
Abstract Experiments: Latin American Art on Paper after 1950
February 18 - May 7, 2017
The Museum of Modern Art
Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction
April 15 - August 13, 2017
Publications
Selected Press
ART News | The ARTnews Accord: Curators Rita Gonzalez and Mari Carmen Ramirez Talk Supporting Latin American and Latinx Art
February 23, 2021
Gonzalez and Ramirez joined ARTnews in October for a videoconference to discuss issues facing museum …
ARTnews | Winter Preview: 19 Essential Museum Shows and Biennials to See This Season
November 29, 2019
Winter is fast-approaching, and so too are some of the first major shows of 2020. Gego opens December …
New York Times | MoMA’s Art Treasure, No Longer Buried
October 22, 2019
The show culminates in a display of six (!) ephemeral hanging wire pieces by the great GEGO (Gertrud …
El Pais | Las partículas elementales de Gego
October 18, 2019
El Museo Reina Sofía de Madrid presenta un documental que repasa el legado de la inclasificable escultora …
The New York Times | 28 Art Shows Worth Traveling For
September 9, 2019
Two Latin American museums turn to artists who make substantial sculpture out of the lightest materials.
NY BluePrint | Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction
May 9, 2017
"Making Space" shines a spotlight on the stunning achievements of women artists between the end of World …
The New York Times | Women at Play in the Fields of Abstraction
April 13, 2017
Funnily enough, the Museum of Modern Art has never named the long-running blockbuster show that fills …
Blouin Artinfo | Gego’s Liminal Lines at Dominique Lévy London
June 16, 2016
“Autobiography of a Line” at Dominique Lévy is the first solo exhibition in London of the German-born …
Lupita | Gego: Autobiography of a Line
June 2, 2016
La galería Dominique Lévy en Londres se complace en presentar la exposición “Gego: Autobiography …
Art + Auction | Artist Dossier: Gego
May 1, 2016
An “artists artist” in her day, the abstract sculptor is gaining a new audience
Blouin Artinfo | Gego
May 1, 2016
“I discovered the charm of the line in and of itself—the line in space as well as the line drawn …
Huffington Post | Reprising Postminimalism in 4 New York Shows: Gego, Nasreen Mohamedi, Ruth Hardinger and Kara Rooney
April 4, 2016
Four definitive exhibitions in New York during the 2015-16 season, when taken together, make a strong …
Descubrier El Arte | Gego, complejas líneas que tejen la vida
October 29, 2015
La galería Dominique Lévy recuerda la figura de la artista Germano-Venezolana Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt) …
Artnet | At Dominique Lévy, Gego Weaves Wire
October 20, 2015
One chapter in that rediscovery is playing out in a solo show now at Dominique Lévy gallery in New York. …
Hyperallergic | Connecting the Lines Between Gego and Sarah Sze
October 14, 2015
Gego and Sarah Sze both studied architecture and chose visual art. Sze studied painting too, though it’s …
Forward | Gego Draws a Line at the Holocaust
October 10, 2015
The show currently on display at Dominique Lévy’s gallery on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, and devoted …
The New York Times | Review: ‘Gego: Autobiography of a Line’ Highlights a Sculptor’s Kinetic Work
October 8, 2015
This entrancing exhibition immerses you in the magic, technical genius and impeccable sensitivity conveyed …
Art News | Gego
October 7, 2015
Gego, who was born Gertrud Goldschmidt in Germany in 1912, emigrated to Venezuela in 1939, and died in …
Art in America | Gego
October 2, 2015
Little seen wire sculptures, paper collages and other delicate and masterful objects by Venezuelan sculptor …
Harper's Bazaar | Gego
September 24, 2015
Gertrude Goldschmidt (1912-1994), conocida como Gego, nació en Hamburgo en el seno de una rica familia …
El Universal | Nueva York y Londres reviven a Gego
September 16, 2015
La mítica artista venezolana de origen alemán (1912-1994) suma una nueva exhibición en Manhattan, …
Bloomberg | The 10 Gallery Shows You Need to Pay Attention to This Fall
September 11, 2015
Gego, whose real name was Gertrud Goldschmidt, was born in Germany in 1912 and fled the Nazi regime to settle …
Complot Magazine | Gego en Nueva York
September 7, 2015
A partir del 10 de septiembre de 2015 se podrá ver en la Galería Dominique Lévy en la ciudad de Nueva …
The New Yorker | Galleries Uptown
September 2, 2015
Gertrud Goldschmidt- she later compressed her name into a syncopated pseudonym-fled Germany in 1939 for …
In New York | Galleries + Antiques
September 1, 2015
Abstract lines come to an apex in Gego: Autobiography of a Line, on view Sept. 10-Oct. 24, the first …
Architectural Digest | Art Shows Opening Soon in New York
August 31, 2015
German-born Venezuelan artist Gego is known for her intricate wire sculptures that expand studies of …
The New York Times | Kinetic Works by the Artist Gego Are Headed for 2 Shows
July 23, 2015
“In Latin America, Gego is like a goddess, in the same way Frida Kahlo has a myth around her, but she …
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Alexander Calder
Enrico Castellani
Chung Sang-Hwa
Francesco Clemente
Dan Colen
Willem de Kooning
Lucio Fontana
Gego
Yves Klein
Jutta Koether
Seung-taek Lee
Robert Motherwell
Senga Nengudi
Roman Opalka
Adrian Piper
Michelangelo Pistoletto
Carol Rama
Martial Raysse
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