This review by the North American art critic Hilton Kramer (1928–2012) is one of the few newspaper articles about the New York exhibition of Reticulárea (1969), the installation by the German-born Venezuelan artist Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt, 1912–1994). But that is not what makes it important; this review is significant because Kramer states that the Reticulárea is the best work at the exhibition, Latin America: New Paintings and Sculpture. Juan Downey, Agustín Fernández, Gego, and Gabriel Morera (New York, Art Gallery of the Center for Inter-American Relations, 1969). In this critic’s opinion the exhibition, in a certain sense, shattered standard perceptions of what had until then been considered Latin American art.
Although the exhibition did not receive much coverage in the press, it caught the attention of many intellectuals, artists, and collectors, as demonstrated by the flood of correspondence that Gego received. It should also be mentioned that this was the only time that Reticulárea (1969) ever left Venezuela. Given the work’s complex structure, it required a monumental effort to move it to New York from where it had originally been installed at the Museo de Bellas Artes [Museum of Fine Arts] in Caracas. In New York, as distinct from Caracas, it was installed in a tent, which involved a great deal of design, planning, and installation work for Gego. Ever since returning to Venezuela, the work has been at the Galería de Arte Nacional [National Art Gallery] (GAN), which is now once again the home of the Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas.
This document is among the texts chosen for the bilingual book Desenredando la red. La Reticulárea de Gego. Una antología de respuestas críticas / Untangling the Web: Gego’s Reticulárea, An Anthology of Critical Response, María Elena Huizi and Ester Crespin (organizers)—to be published by The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Fundación Gego, Caracas.