Gunther Gerzso (1915-2000)

Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art, New York

The canvas is unlined and tightly stretched. There are very small abrasions on some areas along the edges. Under UV light inspection, the work does not appear to have been retouched. This painting is in excellent condition.
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Gunther Gerzso is unquestionably the greatest Mexican abstract painter of the twentieth century.  His iconic paintings were the result of a long artistic journey that began with his work as a set designer in both the United States as well as Mexico.  Gerzso had the privilege of making into reality the cinematographic masterworks that were collaborations with the great directors in the golden age of Mexican film.  Some of these filmmakers include Luis Buñuel, Roberto Gavaldón, Fernando Méndez, Alejandro Galindo, John Huston and most importantly, Jacques Gelman.  It was Gelman, after making his name and fortune producing the "Cantinflas" franchise starring Mario Moreno, who recognized Gerzso's gift and acquired many of his works from his studio over the decades. 

 

Gerzso's initial foray as an artist was like that of many pupils, finding a path to follow artistically.  His first drawings from the mid-1930s were based on the set designs that were created for the theater.  At the same time Gerzso drew inspiration from the European modernists.  The art of Matisse and George Grosz as well as the work of Otto Dix proved to be sources of inspiration for the young artist.  Additionally, the murals of Rivera, Orozco, as well as other works by the Mexican School artists that were in wide circulation in Mexico, provided additional pictorial stimulation. 

 

Most importantly, though, it was the arrival from Paris of a small cadre of Surrealists at the beginning of the Second World War that allowed Gerzso to become intimately involved with a different sphere of influence.   The likes of Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, Benjamin Péret, Wolfgang Paalen and Esteban Frances provided the catalyst for a new vocabulary in Gerzso's art.  This fresh dialogue which was not immersed in the pictorial goals of the Mexican muralists, allowed Gerzso to expand his exploration of Surrealism on his own terms.  As Gerzso's oils became increasingly abstract, the influence of Yves Tanguy, Matta and other artists eroded. 

 

Proudly Mexican, Gerzso explored his native land and discovered the rich lapidary traditions that proliferated the country. Mexico's pre-Columbian civilizations were of great interest to Gerzso.  His visits to those sites resulted in canvases with titles like Chichén Itzá, Labná, and Mayan City.  Gerzso's line became sharper and the overlapping abstract planes, reminiscent of stacked the stones in Mexican pyramids, became less organic.  Indeed, the 1960s heralded the era in which Gerzso shunned the earth tones that proliferated his painting through the 1950s.  Brighter tonalities invaded the artist's palette resulting in compositions imbued with deep reds, lively blues and vibrant greens.

 

Eschewing the figurative tradition that was the dominant form of artistic expression in Mexico, Gerzso was at the forefront of abstraction in post-War Mexico and was the elder statesman of the so-called La Ruptura movement that was also promoted by Lilia Carrillo, Roger von Gunten, Manuel Felguérez and Mathias Goeritz.  Organized in the 1950s, members of this ad hoc group made a conscientious break from the Mexican School and stated that they believed in artistic expression that was more cosmopolitan and apolitical.

 

Painted in 1966, just three years after Gerzso had his first retrospective exhibition held at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Paisaje is a masterwork that was completed when Gerzso hit his stride as a painter.  Though the title of the work references a landscape, the viewer is nonetheless reminded of Gerzso's paintings from the 1950s where his initial abstractions conveyed a sense of the archaic.  In Paisaje Gerzso has evolved; the "masonry" is now hard-edged.  Here Gerzso's abstractions are now pure and display the work of a visionary whose art is unrivalled.