Elsa Gramcko (1925–1994) studied painting and philosophy in Caracas but was largely self-taught as an artist. Alejandro Otero (1921–1990) was an early mentor and facilitated her introduction in 1955 to Gómez Sicre, who offered her a solo exhibition at the PAU (Pan American Union), and also included her in the Gulf-Caribbean Art Exhibition, held in 1956 at the MFAH (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston).
In 1948, Gómez Sicre had taken an active role in cultivating modern art in Venezuela through his establishment, with French art critic Gaston Diehl (1912–1999), of the Taller Libre de Arte in Caracas. Designed to acquaint students with international currents within the art world, the Taller presented exhibitions of, for example, Argentina’s Grupo Concreto–Invención and Jesús Rafael Soto (1923–2005), then a good example of Venezuela’s emerging avant-garde. Considered in this wider context, Gramcko’s exhibition in Washington, DC, may be seen as an extension of Gómez Sicre’s commitment to Venezuela and to geometric abstraction, in general. Characteristically, the author notes the “international flavor” of Gramcko’s work in his introduction to her exhibition at the PAU.
During this period, Gramcko worked in the mode of geometric abstraction, a style that had come to define the Venezuelan avant-garde in the 1950s in the wake of Otero’s groundbreaking exhibition of abstract painting at the Museo de Bellas Artes (Caracas, 1949). She may be considered within the generational context of such artists as Otero, Soto, and Carlos Cruz-Diez (b. 1923), but her work did not share their fascination with optical and kinetic effects. Gramcko’s later work moved away from geometry, as she experimented with assemblage and paintings with denser, more tactile surfaces in the 1960s and 1970s.
Gómez Sicre was a Cuban-born art critic, curator, and writer who worked at the Pan American Union from 1946 to 1982, serving as an art specialist, and later as Chief of the Visual Arts Division. Subsequently he served as Director of the Museum of Modern Art of Latin America (now the Art Museum of the Americas). After his retirement, he was named Director Emeritus of the museum, a position that he held until his death in 1991.
[For additional information on Elsa Gramcko, see the following texts in the ICAA digital archive: “Elsa Gramcko,” written by Clara Diament de Sujo (doc. no. 1153604); “Elsa Gramcko,” by Elizabeth Schön (doc. no. 1152629); and “Elsa Gramcko,” by Oswaldo Trejo (doc. no. 1153620)].
