Gunther Gerzso (1915-2000)

Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art, New York

Luis Cardoza y Aragón, Gunther Gerzso, Mexico, 1972, no. 52, illustrated

This painting on canvas is in very good condition. The reverse of the canvas was painted with a gesso, probably by the artist, in order to stiffen the paint layer. The painting is clean. The varnish is probably original. All of Gerzso's subtle glazes are intact. There are no retouches and the picture should be hung as is. (This condition report has been provided courtesy of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.)
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The power of a Gerzso painting lies in its immediacy. Its presence grabs the moment one looks at it and won't let go. Where does that energy come from? How does it get there? What is its staying power?

 When asked these questions, Gunther Gerzso replied in simple terms. Gerzso never painted with the intention of making a statement, nor did he think about what he was feeling while working out a composition. Suddenly, in the midst of the act of painting, he might become irritated when a thought such as "I forgot to pick up my clothes from the cleaners," or "I need to deliver this painting on Saturday, and I don't know if I'll be finished," came to mind. That is as far as his feelings went. His concerns and unflinching focus were technical, and that was it. "When I'm painting, my biggest problem," he would say, "is seeing [the image] in my head and getting it to come down my arm to my hand." Long ago—and accidentally—he learned that the unconscious had a life of its own and one did not need to do anything for it to emerge, often showing things one might prefer to conceal. The emotional content that imbued Gerzso's work would invisibly transfer effortlessly from him onto the canvas, without his having any control over it.

Gunther Gerzso was an exquisite draughtsman and could draw with photographic precision, but he developed a style of non-objective works that he found 'felt' closer to how he experienced life. He drew freely, spontaneously, the way he longed to live but had suppressed all his life. In adolescence, the young Gunther began drawing for himself, never interested in showing his work, before venturing into painting his first canvas, Dos Mujeres, 1940. Late in life, he destroyed many early drawings as he found them too derivative.

 It was not until 1961, with the painting Avila Negra, that Gerzso introduced an iconography that became the style for which his work is more readily recognized, composed of blades, wounds and the element of sadism. By 1963, the color had become` uniformly aggressive and the compositions ambiguous, beckoning as well as threatening. The anger he had been withholding in silence now was pushing for acknowledgement. Deluding himself he was in control, he began applying the Golden Mean to his paintings, searching for a balance of geometric and mathematical proportions through which to achieve beauty. Many creative people had used the Golden Mean. The Greeks used it to build the Parthenon, the French to build Notre Dame de Paris. Leonardo used it to paint The Last Supper, Uccello his three versions of The Battle of San Romano, and even Mondrian, whose work Gerzso greatly admired, applied it in constructing his compositions.

Gerzso deluded himself that transforming his conflicts into art would be enough, that this would spare him the confrontation with himself. He was partially correct, and he was able to create a body of work no less than extraordinary. These ravishing paintings suddenly drew institutions and serious collectors to pay closer attention to his artistic production. The Palacio de Bellas Artes presented the most comprehensive exhibition of Gerzso's painting in his lifetime. On the other hand, Gerzso discovered that sublimating was not enough, that he needed "to face my demons," as he called them.

Estructuras Verdes, 1964, a relatively unknown work by Gunther Gerzso, comes from this stunning period. A vertical composition painted flat, one cannot see evidence of brushwork. The dark sky, Gerzso's most often recurring theme, represents the unconscious, where conflicts brew without one's being aware of them. While the green fragments, representing a broken Gerzso, first draw the viewer to approach, the white shapes, or blades, on either side warn they will slice anyone that attempts to come near. In Estructuras Verdes, Gerzso portrays a no-win situation: he reaches out while simultaneously rejecting the viewer. He pleads for compassion but also warns: get close and you will pay.

Salomon Grimberg
Dallas, Texas
March 27, 2010