Kunstmuseum Stuttgart. Gego.The Architecture of an Artist
19 February – 10 July 2022
Gego at her workshop. Photo: Isidro Núñez.
Fundación Gego Archive
With “Gego. The Architecture of an Artist” the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart is now devoting its second exhibition to the work of the artist Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt, Hamburg, 1912– Caracas, 1994).
The occasion for the show is a loan of one hundred works to the Kunstmuseum from the Fundación Gego. Since 2019, this collection has been researched as part of the “Gego in Stuttgart” project, conducted in collaboration with the University of Stuttgart and the Wüstenrot Stiftung.
Curator Stefanie Reisinger’s research on the project was extensively supported by the Fundación Gego. Gego is one of the most renowned artists of Latin America today. She studied architecture at the Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart from 1932 to 1938 before she had to emigrate to Venezuela in 1939 because of her Jewish ancestry. In the mid-1950s she began working as an artist.
Gego’s training always remained a point of reference for her artistic practice, which she continually expanded in various media—from technical sketches along with drawings, etchings, and prints to objects and extensive installations in museums or public spaces.
The exhibition makes clear that the boundaries between the disciplines of architecture and art are fluid in Gego’s work.
Performance
Cuerdas Simple Medida (Coreogego)
Sonia Sanoja, 1978
Photograph: Miguel Gracia
© Sonia Sanoja – Alfredo Silva Estrada Foundation
In 1977, the venezuelan dancer Sonia Sanoja played a performance within the framework of the Gego exhibition at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas. From this experience, a year later, the dancer created two emblematic choreographies in the history of contemporary dance in Venezuela.
At the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, there will be a remake of these choreographies, under the direction of Claudia Capriles with the participation of the John Grancko School.
Organized by the Sonia Sanoja-Alfredo Silva Estrada Foundation.
It will be presented on February 18 during the opening of the exhibition and on the dates below:
Sunday, March 6, 4 pm
Tuesday, March 8, 5 pm
Sunday, March 20, 4 pm
Thursday, May 12, 5 pm
Thursday, May 19, 5pm
Saturday, May 21, 7:30 pm / 8:30 pm / 9:30 p.m. (Long Night of the Museums)
Thursday, June 23, 5 pm
Thursday, June 30, 5 pm
Friday, July 8, 7pm
Gego: Procedencia y encuentro
International Conference
Thursday, April 7 & 8, 2022
Gego’s independent artistic position was shaped by an intensive examination of the architectural practices of her time. Here, the significance of “origin and encounter” (“procedencia y encuentro”) played a central role for the exile artist. Together with international art historians, curators, and architectural theorists, we are interested in asking: what importance did the study of architecture at the TH Stuttgart have for Gego? What impulses did her new hometown, Caracas, in which all of the arts were closely interwoven, provide her?
In conjunction with the exhibition Gego: The Architecture of an Artist, a two-day symposium is taking place at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart. The discussion with address the professional and social contexts in which Gego was embedded, first in Stuttgart and later in Caracas. These will be analyzed against the backdrop of the respective prevailing discourses in art and architecture and placed in relation to her artistic practice.
Participants
Mónica Amor (Maryland Institute College of Art), Noit Banai (Hong Kong Baptist University), Pablo León de la Barra (Guggenheim Museum, New York), Hannia Gómez (Fundación de la Memoria Urbana, Caracas), Hubert Klumpner (ETH Zürich), Sabine Maynberger (Universität Bonn), Mari Carmen Ramírez (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston), Stefanie Reisinger (Universität Stuttgart), Kerstin Thomas (Universität Stuttgart)
Welcome
Ulrike Groos (director of the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart), Kerstin Thomas (professor of modern art history, Universität Stuttgart) and Philip Kurz (managing director of the Wüstenrot Stiftung)
Roundtable
Gego in Stuttgart: Long-term loan at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart
Wednesday, May 4, 2022, 6:30 pm
In 2017, Fundación Gego entrusted one hundred works by Gego, as a long term loan to the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart for its custody, study and exhibition.
Different opportunities and challenges that these loans mean for public institutions will be discussed in this meeting
With the participation of:
Dr. Loretta Würtenberger. Director The Institutes for Artist’s Estates
Dr. Martin Hoernes Secretary General. Ernst von Siemmens Stiftung
Dr. Ulrike Groos. Kunstmuseum Stuttgart Director
Moderator: Prof. Georg Imdahl. Art critic, lecturer and professor at Kunstakademic Münster