Gunther Gerzso (1915-2000)

oil and sand on canvas

Galería de Arte Mexicano, Mexico City
Philippe Reichenbach, Houston
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, 19th and 20th Century Mexican Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture and Prints, May 9, 1980, lot 74, illustrated in color
Window South, Menlo Park
Sale: Christie's, New York, Latin American Sale, May 25-26, 2005, lot 34, illustrated in color
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Mexico City, Museo Nacional de Arte, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Texturas, tonalidades y resonancias latinoamericanas, November, 2001-February, 2003, p. 86, no. 14, illustrated in color
Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Museum of Art; Mexico City, Museo de Arte Moderno; Chicago, Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, Risking the Abstract: Mexican Modernism and the Art of Gunther Gerzso, July, 2003-June, 2004, p. 177, no. 54, illustrated in color

Octavio Paz and J. Golding, Gerzso, Editions du Griffon Neuchâtel-Suisse, 1983, p. 11, illustrated in color

The canvas is unlined and well-stretched. The impasto areas are stable. There is slight craquelure throughout especially in the upper left quadrant with a 4 in. vertical line of inpainting due to paint lifting with several small dots of inpainting surrounding it. Overall in very good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Gunther Gerzso is situated within the history of Mexican modern art as one of the pioneers of abstraction—an artist who successfully merged elements of Mexico's past and other ancient cultures with diverse aspects of Cubism, Constructivism, and Surrealism to develop a signature style that redefined the possibilities of European abstraction and provided an alternative to more traditional notions of "mexicanidad."

 

In 1959, Gerzso traveled to Greece and became fascinated by the ruins of another lost civilization. The experience prompted a new phase in the artist's development, his "Greek" period, comprised of thirty-six paintings spanning 1959-1961, of which Ávila Negra is a magnificent example. The series reflects a significant transition between Gerzso's early mature and fully mature abstract works. Painted in an unusually large scale, these works as noted by art historian Diane C. Du Pont, "mark a shift toward an expressive abstraction characterized by expansive fields of saturated color, dense textures, and subtle, gestural mark-making. [The well-defined contours of the previous period are here replaced] with blurred edges and hazy planes [of color] that resonate harmoniously with Gerzso's newly found interest in loose brushstrokes and variegated surfaces." ¹ Poetic in there ability to use the emotive power of abstraction to denote a sense of place, these works also represented a experimental approach to the painted surface by employing a more textural quality obtained by mixing pigments with sand and pumice stone thereby echoing the porous surfaces of the ancient monuments.

 

 

 

 

1 Diana C. Du Pont, "Gerzso: Pioneering the Abstract in Mexico" in exhibition catalogue Risking the Abstract Mexican Modernism and the Art of Gunther Gerzso (Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 2003), p. 124-25