This manuscript chronology by Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt, 1912–1994), a Venezuelan artist of German origin, outlines the process and development of her aesthetic concerns. As such, it has been useful to specialists in their attempts to trace the distinct phases of her work. The text was written while Gego was preparing her first major solo exhibition, which was held at the Museo Contemporáneo of Caracas in 1977. On the occasion of that exhibition, the book Gego, written by Venezuelan poet and essayist Hanni Ossott, was published, as was a catalogue featuring an essay by Marta Traba, a Colombian critic of Argentine origin.Gego describes the transformation of her aesthetic, providing specific pieces of information that serve to ground understanding and analysis of her work and, mostly, to develop a language through which to grasp it. Gego invents not only her work but also the language with which to approach it, thus necessitating new parameters in criticism. It was difficult to understand such highly personal and independent work at the margins of what was in fashion in art at the time from the perspectives and arguments common in critical debates of the day. Thus, this text that was written by Gego herself more than twenty years after her first solo exhibition, is fundamental to a comprehensive and systematic analysis of her work. Other texts in which Gego expresses her ideas about the line include: “Line as human,” undated; “Relaciones de líneas,” [Relation between Lines] undated; “You invited me,” 1966; and “Statement,” 1970.This document forms part of the artist’s personal archive housed at the Fundación Gego in Caracas, Venezuela. It is reproduced in: María Elena Huizi and Josefina Manrique (editors): Sabiduras y otros textos de Gego / Sabiduras and other texts by Gego. Houston: International Center for the Arts of the Americas, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Fundación Gego, 2005.
