Gertrud Goldschmidt fled Nazi Germany in 1939 and resettled permanently in Venezuela, where she became known for abstractions of striking repetition and angularity, beginning with what she called herself: Gego. “Both the name and the construction are no-nonsense versions of nonsense,” writes Richard Shiff in an October 2001 review of the late artist’s kinetic works in three and two dimensions. “Hers is formally tight art hovering on the edge of structural disintegration.” The Guggenheim like Gego’s famous wire sculptures, an experiment in light, line, and movement is currently hosting a
Gego, in full Gertrud Louise Goldschmidt, (born August 1, 1912, Hamburg, Germany died September 17, 1994, Caracas, Venezuela), Venezuelan artist associated with geometric abstraction, a type of art that uses flat shapes to create nonobjective compositions, and kinetic art, a form of art that relies on motion. She is known for her exploration of line in her immersive handmade wire sculptures and in architecture, drawing, printmaking, and weaving. Born Gertrud Louise Goldschmidt in Hamburg, Gego used a portmanteau of her first and last names throughout her artistic career. She was one of seven children in a family of Jewish origin. She