Untangling the Web Gego's Reticularea, An Anthology of Critical Response Maria Elena Huizi, Ester Crespin, Mari Carmen Ramirez

One of the most influential Latin American artists of her day, Gego (1912-1994) pioneered a new direction in art with her innovative sculptures of the 1960s and 1970s. Born in Germany as Gertrude Goldschmidt, Gego fled the Nazi regime and moved to Caracas, Venezuela. There, during the postwar years, she absorbed modernist trends such as kinetic and geometric abstract art but ultimately forged her own artistic path, one that took into account viewer experience and interaction.

Exploring the concept of the line, space and time, she linked pieces of metal to create weblike geometric forms, which she called 'drawings in space'. These experiments culminated in Reticularea, a massive netlike sculptural installation first presented at the Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, in 1969.

This groundbreaking work had major repercussions in the art world and marked a turning point in Gego's career. Centered on the various iterations of this work and its artistic impact, this anthology brings together images as well as documentary materials and primary texts in English and Spanish by artists, writers, and Gego herself.

Maria Elena Huizi is an independent poet, essayist, and art writer in Caracas, Venezuela. Ester Crespin is an independent scholar and curator who is actively involved with the Fundacion Gego in Caracas, Venezuela. Mari Carmen Ramirez is the Wortham Curator of Latin American Art and the director of the International Center for the Arts of the Americas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

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