LGDR is pleased to present Lines in Space — opening June 7, 2023, at 19 East 64th Street in New York—the first exhibition of Gego’s work at the gallery’s new flagship location. A leading figure of Venezuelan abstraction in the 1960s and ’70s, Gego (1912–1994) created multidimensional works that radically engage the properties of line and space. Lines in Space will offer a concentrated survey of the artist’s works across media, including the constellated wire structure Chorro (1979/86), the six-part steel-and-bronze sculpture Cornisa I (1967), the rectilinear Meccano (1985), and a diverse array of luminous watercolors, collages, and drawings. We are delighted to present our exhibition in collaboration with Fundación Gego and to mount our presentation alongside the New York iteration of Gego: Measuring Infinity, a major traveling retrospective of the artist’s work on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Best known for her net-like wire structures, Gego rejected stylistic categories and historical trajectories of influence, wedding the intuition of expressionism and the order of the constructivist grid. Her approach to geometric abstraction is defined by her calligraphic hand as well as her training in architecture and engineering. Working between artistic disciplines, Gego challenged the grid as an idealized form so often employed in modernized urban space. Indeterminacy was something she welcomed in the reception and production of her works. In 1981, she wrote: “What is stimulating is activity, the development of which is impossible to know beforehand.”
Spanning a period from 1961 through 1990, Lines in Space begins with works on paper that explore the possibilities of line to disrupt or diffuse ordered composition. On view will be key examples of the artist’s sculptural series, such as Chorro (1979/86). Initiated as a Chorro (Stream) work in 1979, the sculpture was reworked by the artist in 1986, attaining the net-like qualities of Reticulàrea, Gego’s most impactful series. The work is one of approximately 15 large-scale, stand-alone wire sculptures by the celebrated artist.
Spanning a period from 1961 through 1990, Lines in Space begins with works on paper that explore the possibilities of line to disrupt or diffuse ordered composition. On view will be key examples of the artist’s sculptural series, such as Chorro (1979/86). Initiated as a Chorro (Stream) work in 1979, the sculpture was reworked by the artist in 1986, attaining the net-like qualities of Reticulàrea, Gego’s most impactful series. The work is one of approximately 15 large-scale, stand-alone wire sculptures by the celebrated artist.
Lines in Space travels from LGDR’s Paris gallery at 4 Passage Ste Avoye where it was the first exhibition dedicated to the work of Gego in Paris. This presentation follows those organized by Lévy Gorvy in New York (2015) and London (2016), and continues a long-standing relationship with the artist’s estate. The retrospective Gego: Measuring Infinity traveled from Museo Jumex in Mexico City (October 2022– February 2023), and the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (2019–20), and will continue on to the Guggenheim Bilbao (October 2023–February 2024). On May 13, 2023, LGDR will host a book launch to celebrate the new authoritative monograph on the artist by Mónica Amor, Gego: Weaving the Space in Between, published by Yale University Press.
About the Artist ~ Born Gertrud Goldschmidt in Hamburg, Germany, Gego studied engineering and architecture at the Technical School of Stuttgart (1938). In 1939, she fled Nazi Germany and immigrated to Caracas, Venezuela. A contemporary of Kinetic artists Jesús Rafael Soto and Alejandro Otero, she arrived at her art practice when she was 41. Traveling exhibitions and retrospectives dedicated to the artist have been organized by such institutions as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2022–23); Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas (2000); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2005); Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto (2006); Hamburger Kunsthalle (2013); the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (2014); and Kunstmuseum Stuttgart (2022). In 2005, Gego’s writings (Sabiduras) were published for the first time. Her work belongs to the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas; Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi; Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona; Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires; and the Tate, London, among many others.
About LGDR ~ Founded by Dominique Lévy, Brett Gorvy, Amalia Dayan, and Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, LGDR is a collaborative international art venture that brings expertise and vision to its disciplines. LGDR represents and partners with artists and estates—realizing seminal projects and furthering legacies. From placing primary and secondary works of the highest quality and advising clients on the development of their collections, to harnessing its institutional relationships and presenting a curated program with scholarly publications, LGDR puts artistic voices first. In forming LGDR, the four partners merge their respective specialties across 20th-and 21st-century art; their individual reputations as leaders and tastemakers; and their separate histories as principals of galleries with exemplary exhibition programs. Both international and local in practice and perspective, LGDR has unique spaces and unmatched market knowledge in New York, London, Paris, and Hong Kong in addition to off-site presentations and satellite teams around the world.
Gego: Lines in Space will be on view from June 7 through July 7, 2023 at LDGR, 19 East 64th Street,, NYC.
While you’re there, don’t miss the exhibition ‘Jean Fautrier: A Private Collection’.
The retrospective Gego: Measuring Infinity is on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, from March 31 to September 10, 2023. It traveled from Museo Jumex, Mexico City (October 2022– February 2023), the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo (December 2019–March 2020) and will continue to Guggenheim Bilbao (October 2023–February 2024).