Gego (Gertrudis Goldschmidt) (1912-1994)

Private Collection, Arizona (gift of the artist, early 1960s)

There are a few minor scuffs and abrasions to the metal elements. A few of the metal pieces are slightly bent where they exit the base. There are certain areas of the base that are beginning to exhibit rust. Overall in very good condition.
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Gego's artistic practice centers largely on the artist's explorations around the fundamental principles of drawing.  And while her early works are largely comprised of sculptural constructions, it was her ability to blur and expand the traditional boundaries between different techniques and mediums, while most effectively eroding the limits between drawings and sculpture that is perhaps her most enduring contribution. Indeed, by reducing drawing to its simplest equation—the projection of a line into space, Gego was able to liberate this medium from its traditional support while making the void or the negative space as important as the form.

The extraordinary work here on view was more than likely executed in the late 1950s as its formal properties suggest Gego's early sculptural works in which the artist employed strips of metal that were ably transformed into dynamic curvilinear, almost ribbon-like forms that belie the inherent qualities of the material. Gego's seemingly weightless constructions twist, turn and ultimately form intimate enclosures that project volumes into space. The linear and organic qualities of these works are intrinsically related to the conceptual principles of drawing while simultaneously defying the bounds between structure and dematerialization, resistance and malleability, strength and fragility, and logic and irrationality.