GUNTHER GERZSO, (1915-2000)
La Isla
La Isla
signed and dated 'Gerszò 45.' (lower right)
oil and enamel paint on board laid on board
56.2 x 70.8cm (22 1/8 x 27 7/8in).
Painted in 1945
Provenance
Estate of Luis Lindau, Mexico City.
Thence by descent to Juan Lindau, Colorado.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2008.
Exhibited
Monterrey, Museo de Monterrey, Exposición retrospectiva de Gunther Gerzso, January - March 1981.
New York, Mary-Anne Martin Fine Art, Gunther Gerzso, In His Memory, 12 October - 11 November 2000, no. 7.
Literature
D. Du Pont, Risking the Abstract, Mexican Modernism and the Art of Gunther Gerzso, Santa Barbara, 2003, fig. 27 (illustrated p. 48).
Gunther Gerzso was born in Mexico City to a Hungarian father and a German mother, five years after the birth of the Mexican Revolution, and identified as a chilango – a native to Mexico City – throughout his life. After the arrival of André Breton in 1938, Mexico became a sanctuary for the Surrealists – a pre-modern utopia far removed from the ravages of World War II. Exiled émigrés such as Remedios Varo, Alice Rahon and Leonora Carrington found fertile creative ground in Mexico's seductive landscapes and rich Pre-Columbian mythologies. Gerzso joined this circle of exiles in 1943, gathering regularly at the home of Varo and Benjamin Péret to share notes on painting and play Surrealist parlour games such as Exquisite Corpse.
La Isla exemplifies Gerzso's Surrealist interest in anthropomorphising ancient landscapes, distilling their eerie beauty with the spiritual incantations of his brushwork. A spectacle of unruly terrain, the island appears to breathe and swell, its life force charged by the flowing tides and currents that envelop it. Abstracted humanoid figures appear to sprout from the upper-left quadrant, sheltering beneath a spiralling, geometric structure. Gerzso's energetic layering of cool grey, teal and azure over earthen tones invokes fertility and abundance, while the glossy sheen of the enamel paint is a fitting vessel for La Isla's geological and crystalline forms. Gerzso's use of enamel was motivated by social realist painters like David Alfaro Siqueiros, who used industrial paints to generate 'art for the people', whilst his thick black outlines and piercing, vivid forms echo the zeals of Mexican Muralism.
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La Isla
La Isla
signed and dated 'Gerszò 45.' (lower right)
oil and enamel paint on board laid on board
56.2 x 70.8cm (22 1/8 x 27 7/8in).
Painted in 1945
Provenance
Estate of Luis Lindau, Mexico City.
Thence by descent to Juan Lindau, Colorado.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2008.
Exhibited
Monterrey, Museo de Monterrey, Exposición retrospectiva de Gunther Gerzso, January - March 1981.
New York, Mary-Anne Martin Fine Art, Gunther Gerzso, In His Memory, 12 October - 11 November 2000, no. 7.
Literature
D. Du Pont, Risking the Abstract, Mexican Modernism and the Art of Gunther Gerzso, Santa Barbara, 2003, fig. 27 (illustrated p. 48).
Gunther Gerzso was born in Mexico City to a Hungarian father and a German mother, five years after the birth of the Mexican Revolution, and identified as a chilango – a native to Mexico City – throughout his life. After the arrival of André Breton in 1938, Mexico became a sanctuary for the Surrealists – a pre-modern utopia far removed from the ravages of World War II. Exiled émigrés such as Remedios Varo, Alice Rahon and Leonora Carrington found fertile creative ground in Mexico's seductive landscapes and rich Pre-Columbian mythologies. Gerzso joined this circle of exiles in 1943, gathering regularly at the home of Varo and Benjamin Péret to share notes on painting and play Surrealist parlour games such as Exquisite Corpse.
La Isla exemplifies Gerzso's Surrealist interest in anthropomorphising ancient landscapes, distilling their eerie beauty with the spiritual incantations of his brushwork. A spectacle of unruly terrain, the island appears to breathe and swell, its life force charged by the flowing tides and currents that envelop it. Abstracted humanoid figures appear to sprout from the upper-left quadrant, sheltering beneath a spiralling, geometric structure. Gerzso's energetic layering of cool grey, teal and azure over earthen tones invokes fertility and abundance, while the glossy sheen of the enamel paint is a fitting vessel for La Isla's geological and crystalline forms. Gerzso's use of enamel was motivated by social realist painters like David Alfaro Siqueiros, who used industrial paints to generate 'art for the people', whilst his thick black outlines and piercing, vivid forms echo the zeals of Mexican Muralism.
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