The modernist artist Gertrud Goldschmidt, better known simply as Gego, was born to unassuming, if prosperous circumstances in Hamburg, Germany, in 1912. As a Jew, she fled Nazi Germany alongside her family in 1939, arriving alone in Caracas, Venezuela, which at the time was a booming capital churning with a vibrant artistic renaissance. Seizing the opportunity presented by her departure from Europe, Gego would reinvent herself in Venezuela with the freedom and fervor of an emigrant, going on to produce a body of work that many have classified among the most original artistic outputs of the 20th century.
“I believe she is part of the incredible artists of the postwar era that have touched upon not just one medium, but many mediums,” said the art dealer Dominique Lévy, a founding member of LGDR, which has just opened a tightly curated show of Gego’s work, Lines in Space. Lévy continued, “She had the courage to stay the course without worrying about trends, without any fear. She should be up there with the greatest.”
