In commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of artist, Gertrud “Gego” Goldschmidt (1912-1994), Americas Society will co-present Gego: Origin and Encounter, Mastering the Space with Sala Mendoza and Fundación Gego from September 29 – December 8, 2012.

Curated by Josefina Manrique and Gabriela Rangel, the title takes from Gego’s writings on art, which she identified as sabiduras—aphoristic and fragmentary meditations about her work and personal interests.

Born in Hamburg, Germany, Gego studied architecture and engineering at the Technische Hochshcule in Stuttgart before her German citizenship was nullified in 1935 because of her Jewish heritage. In 1939, she migrated to Venezuela where she received citizenship in 1952. Not long after in 1957, she became a practicing artist and in the following years developed an important body of work. The exhibition will feature a significant group of works on paper, preparatory drawings, photographs, manuscripts, sketches, and three-dimensional pieces that attest to the artist’s journey from colorful landscapes and street scenes to abstraction.

A special section in the exhibition is dedicated to the documentation of the various Reticuláreas—in-situ wire and mesh structures—made in Caracas, New York, and Frankfurt. This space focuses on the process of making these environmental pieces and features a comprehensive selection of preparatory gouache and crayon compositions, as well photographs, correspondences and complex drawings and graphic works. As one of the very few venues where the Reticulárea was made, Americas Society is proud to examine Gego’s innovative and groundbreaking command of the space through this outstanding environment.

In conjunction with Gego: Origin and Encounter, Mastering the Space Americas Society will Image credit: Gego installing her Reticulárea at Ater Oper Frankfurt, 1982 present a day long symposium on November 9, 2012, with Columbia University’s Department of Art History and Archaeology, the Institute for the Study of Latin American Art. The event will bring together a select group of art historians, cultural critics and curators to explore the historical relevance of Gego’s art at the centenary of her birth.