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Biography

Gego - Artists - GALERÍA RGR

(Hamburg, Germany, 1912 - Caracas, Venezuela, 1994)

Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt) studied architecture and engineering at the Stuttgart Technical School, Germany, where she was tutored by architect Paul Bonatz, following the models proposed by the Bauhaus and Russian Constructivism. In 1939, due to persecution from the Nazi regime, the artist migrated to Venezuela, settling in Caracas.

In her new country of residence, Gego dedicated to design, furniture making, and the development of architectural projects. Additionally, she began a long teaching career that would lead her to be one of the founders and subsequent professors of the Institute of Design from the Neumann Foundation (Caracas) in 1964. It was during the 1950s that she deepened her artistic practice, which was at first of a figurative, expressionist type, and then —already in dialogue with kinetic artists like Alejandro Otero and Jesús Rafael Soto— of a sculptural type, grounded upon spectator participation, action, and movement as key principles of production.

Her work is characterized by the experimentation with lines upon space, conceived as the most elemental unit of drawing, as well as for the innovative use of the grid, a form intimately related to abstraction in modern art. In 1969, Gego exhibited Reticulárea at the Caracas Museum of Fine Arts, an installation whose importance in the history of art cannot be understated. It is an assembly of modular pieces made of steel and aluminum, which constitute an apparently organic vast structure, which experience is marked by the rupture of the spaces that hold them in place.

Slideshow

Slideshow Thumbnails
GEGO

Untitled, 1960

Etching on paper

38 x 28.6 cm
15 x 11 1/4 in

Edition 5 of 10

GEGO

Untitled, 1960

Etching on paper

38 x 28.6 cm
15 x 11 1/4 in

Edition 5 of 10

Inquire
GEGO

Untitled, 1970

Ink on cardboard

65.50 x 50.40 cm

25 37/47 x 19 91/108 in

Unique

GEGO

Untitled, 1970

Ink on cardboard

65.50 x 50.40 cm

25 37/47 x 19 91/108 in

Unique

GEGO

Untitled, 1963

Ink on paper

35.10 x 28 cm

13 95/116 x 11 2/85 in

Unique

GEGO

Untitled, 1963

Ink on paper

35.10 x 28 cm

13 95/116 x 11 2/85 in

Unique

Inquire
GEGO

Untitled, 1963

Ink on paper

31.60 x 28 cm

12 56/127 x 11 2/85 in

Unique

GEGO

Untitled, 1963

Ink on paper

31.60 x 28 cm

12 56/127 x 11 2/85 in

Unique

Inquire
GEGO

Untitled, 1961

Ink on paper

44.10 x 30.50 cm

17 21/58 x 12 1/127 in

Unique

GEGO

Untitled, 1961

Ink on paper

44.10 x 30.50 cm

17 21/58 x 12 1/127 in

Unique

Inquire
GEGO

Untitled, 1963

Intaglio on cardboard

38 x 28 cm

14 122/127 x 11 2/85 in

Edition P/A 5

GEGO

Untitled, 1963

Intaglio on cardboard

38 x 28 cm

14 122/127 x 11 2/85 in

Edition P/A 5

Inquire
GEGO

Untitled, 1971

Stainless steel wire and metal beads

30 x 36 x 9 cm
11 3/4 x 14 1/4 x 3 1/2 in

GEGO

Untitled, 1971

Stainless steel wire and metal beads

30 x 36 x 9 cm
11 3/4 x 14 1/4 x 3 1/2 in

Inquire
GEGO

Untitled, 1960

Etching on paper

38 x 28.6 cm
15 x 11 1/4 in

Edition 5 of 10

GEGO

Untitled, 1960

Etching on paper

38 x 28.6 cm
15 x 11 1/4 in

Edition 5 of 10

GEGO

Untitled, 1970

Ink on cardboard

65.50 x 50.40 cm

25 37/47 x 19 91/108 in

Unique

GEGO

Untitled, 1970

Ink on cardboard

65.50 x 50.40 cm

25 37/47 x 19 91/108 in

Unique

GEGO

Untitled, 1963

Ink on paper

35.10 x 28 cm

13 95/116 x 11 2/85 in

Unique

GEGO

Untitled, 1963

Ink on paper

35.10 x 28 cm

13 95/116 x 11 2/85 in

Unique

GEGO

Untitled, 1963

Ink on paper

31.60 x 28 cm

12 56/127 x 11 2/85 in

Unique

GEGO

Untitled, 1963

Ink on paper

31.60 x 28 cm

12 56/127 x 11 2/85 in

Unique

GEGO

Untitled, 1961

Ink on paper

44.10 x 30.50 cm

17 21/58 x 12 1/127 in

Unique

GEGO

Untitled, 1961

Ink on paper

44.10 x 30.50 cm

17 21/58 x 12 1/127 in

Unique

GEGO

Untitled, 1963

Intaglio on cardboard

38 x 28 cm

14 122/127 x 11 2/85 in

Edition P/A 5

GEGO

Untitled, 1963

Intaglio on cardboard

38 x 28 cm

14 122/127 x 11 2/85 in

Edition P/A 5

GEGO

Untitled, 1971

Stainless steel wire and metal beads

30 x 36 x 9 cm
11 3/4 x 14 1/4 x 3 1/2 in

GEGO

Untitled, 1971

Stainless steel wire and metal beads

30 x 36 x 9 cm
11 3/4 x 14 1/4 x 3 1/2 in