Gego: Autobiography of a Line
Gego: Autobiography of a Line (2016), presented by Dominique Lévy, was the second in a pair of exhibitions between New York and London celebrating the legacy of German-born Venezuelan artist Gego (Gertrude Goldschmidt, 1912–1994). In Gego’s intricate wire sculptures, the line becomes a new dimensional language to describe architectural space and engage the human body. Her practice is defined by radical abstraction, giving a deeper narrative to graceful and mechanical forms.
The first gallery exhibition ever organized in collaboration with Fundación Gego, Autobiography of a Line brought together key works from the artist’s oeuvre from several institutions, including Fundación de Museos Nacionales, Venezuela; Colección Mercantil, Venezuela; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation. The exhibition reunited Gego’s celebrated Chorros for the first time in New York City since their debut at Betty Parsons Gallery in 1971. This group of towering wire sculptures, created between 1970–71, embodies the palpable sense of entropic geometry and spatial play for which Gego receives international admiration. Also on view are late sculptures from the artist’s series of Dibujos sin papel (Drawings without Paper); small-scale Bichitos (Creatures); and works on paper that complicate and question the relationship between drawing and sculpture, such as the Tejeduras (Weavings), and other series created during Gego’s long career. Autobiography of a Line was preceded in 2015 by an exhibition devoted to Gego at the gallery’s New York space.