Gego

In 2010 the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, the University of Stuttgart, and the Wüstenrot Stiftung, launched a joint project to tap into, research, present, and organize educational programing for the work of the artist Gego.

Gertrud Goldschmidt (Hamburg 1912–Caracas, Venezuela 1994), known as Gego, is considered one of Latin America’s best-known women artists, and with the delicate, netlike spatial installations, or "Reticuláreas," she began making in 1969 she became a role model for an entire generation of artists. From 1932 to 1938 Gego studied architecture with Paul Bonatz at the Technical University in Stuttgart. In 1939 she immigrated to Caracas. There, after briefly working as an architect and furniture designer, she began making art in 1953, using the line as her central means of expression.

In 2014 the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, in collaboration with the Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, devoted the monographic exhibition "Gego. Line as Object" to the artist, featuring works from all phases of her oeuvre. In conjunction with the show, in 2017 the Fundación Gego gave the Kunstmuseum ninety drawings, watercolors, and graphics as well as ten objects from the artist’s estate, on permanent loan. The transfer is linked with the hope—also in light of the difficult situation in Venezuela—that here the holdings will be safeguarded, registered, researched, and the results presented. Along with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; and the MACBA, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart is the fourth and only German museum to hold a large collection of works by the artist.

In addition to the quality and relevance of the works as well as the urgency to secure and examine them, Gego’s connection to the region through her studies in Stuttgart also speak for this research project. It aims at further investigating the impact of Gego’s architectural studies on her art, building on already existing knowledge.

Central to the research project will be a jointly conducted program of events and exhibitions that will present the research results to the public.