This major retrospective will offer a fully integrated view of the influential German-Venezuelan artist and her distinctive approach to the language of abstraction.


NEW YORK, NY – WEBWIRE



Exhibition: Gego: Measuring Infinity


Venue: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York


Location: Rotunda levels 1 through 5 and High Gallery


Date: March 31, 2023–September 12, 2023


A major retrospective devoted to the work of Gego, or Gertrud Goldschmidt (b. 1912, Hamburg; d. 1994, Caracas), will be presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum from March 31, 2023, through September 12, 2023, offering a fully integrated view of the influential German-Venezuelan artist and her distinctive approach to the language of abstraction. Across five ramps of the museum’s rotunda, Gego: Measuring Infinity will feature approximately 200 artworks from the early 1950s through the early 1990s, including sculptures, drawings, prints, textiles, and artist’s books.


Gego first trained as an architect and engineer at the Technische Hochschule Stuttgart (now Universität Stuttgart). Fleeing Nazi persecution in 1939, she immigrated to Venezuela, where in the 1940s she embarked on an artistic career that would span more than four decades. In two- and three-dimensional works across a variety of mediums, she explored the relationship between line, space, and volume. Her pursuits in the related fields of architecture, design, public art, and pedagogy complemented those investigations.


Although Gego was arguably one of the most significant artists to emerge in Latin America during the second half of the twentieth century, her work remains lesser known in the United States. Examining the formal and conceptual contributions she made through her organic forms, linear structures, and systematic spatial investigations, Gego: Measuring Infinity will ground her practice in the artistic contexts of Latin America that flourished over the course of her lengthy career. It will consider Gego’s intersections with—and departures from—key transnational art movements including geometric abstraction, Kinetic art, Minimalism, and Post-Minimalism, tracing a markedly individual artistic path. This exhibition builds upon the Guggenheim Museum’s distinguished legacy of presenting groundbreaking modern and contemporary solo survey exhibitions that champion nonobjective art. A selection of this retrospective will be presented at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in the fall of 2023.


The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s presentation of Gego: Measuring Infinity is organized by Pablo León de la Barra, Curator at Large, Latin America, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, New York, and Geaninne Gutiérrez-Guimarães, Associate Curator, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, New York.


Gego: Measuring Infinity is organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museo Jumex, Mexico City; and Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand—MASP. The exhibition was developed by Julieta González, Artistic Director, Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil; Geaninne Gutiérrez-Guimarães, Associate Curator, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, New York; and Pablo León de la Barra, Curator at Large, Latin America, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, New York, and former Adjunct Curator of Latin American Art, Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand—MASP; in collaboration with Tanya Barson, former Chief Curator, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona; and Michael Wellen, Senior Curator, International Art, Tate Modern, London.


Funders


The Leadership Committee for Gego: Measuring Infinity is gratefully acknowledged for its generosity, with special thanks to Clarissa Alcock and Edgar Bronfman, Jr., Chairs, as well as Dominique Lévy and Brett Gorvy, Estrellita and Daniel Brodsky, Adriana Batan Rocca, Peter Bentley Brandt, Catherine Petitgas, Maria Belen Avellaneda-Kantt, Alice and Nahum Lainer, and Ana Julia Thomson de Zuloaga.


Funding is also generously provided by the Kate Cassidy Foundation, the David Berg Foundation, the Diane and Bruce Halle Foundation, and the Henry Moore Foundation.


Significant support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.Additional funding is provided by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s Latin American Circle.


About the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum


The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation was established in 1937 and is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of modern and contemporary art through exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications. The international constellation of museums includes the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao; and the future Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. An architectural icon and “temple of spirit” where radical art and architecture meet, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is now among a group of eight Frank Lloyd Wright structures in the United States recently designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. To learn more about the museum and the Guggenheim’s activities around the world, visit guggenheim.org.




#MeasuringInfinity


@Guggenheim


guggenheim.org/social




For publicity images, visit guggenheim.org/pressimages


Password: presspass