“To visualize a solution is what matters: to make visible that which still does not exist outside of me.”
- Gego
Gego (b. 1912 Hamburg, Germany - 1994 Caracas, Venezuela) was a pioneering Venezuelan sculptor and artist who developed an innovative style of abstraction. Born Gertrude Goldschmidt in Hamburg, Germany, she moved to Caracas in 1939. Though initially influenced by Venezuelan kinetic and geometric trends, Gego aimed to forge her own artistic idiom. Her breakthrough came with conceptual "Drawings Without Paper" and wire sculptures occupying space like 3D drawings. Gego considered space a discrete medium - her sparse wire works form networks that make negative space tangible. She is best known for her delicate, web-like Reticulárea series, comprised of interwoven steel rods and aluminum that fill an entire room when installed.
Gego's art asserts its contextual contingency, with lighting and shadows revealing her works' integral connections to their architectural environments. By the time of her death, Gego had transcended initial categorization as a kinetic artist through decades of morphological experimentations with line, transparency and mass. Her boundless forms illuminate space as a dynamic creative component.