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Created: July 14, 2003
Latest Update: July 14, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

The Art of Gunther Gerzso

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, July 2003.
"Fair use" encouraged.

Gunther Gerzso
Title: El Personaje
Date:1994
Technique: Silkscreen Dimensions:24" x 19" (62 cm x 48 cm)
The Adani Gallery

For me El Personaje is a good illustration of how Gunther Gerzso uses both architectural drawing and figurative drawing, not by combining them, but by folding them into one another. In his show in Santa Barbara there was a similar piece of a woman goddess. She was created of stone-like layers that recall the building of old temples, and at the same time the large stone figurative sculptures of the preColumbians.

In El Personaje I see a similar kind of juxtaposition of ceremonial community building and the imposing stone figure. This is an ordinary citizen response, not that of a professional art critic. But I dare to let my own environment radiate with my interpretations.

References:

• Santa Barbara Museum of Art Current Exhibitions. Includes Exhibition on Gunther Gerzso.
• The Adani Gallery
• Gerzso's Estructeras Antiguas Virtual Museum of Canada. Gunther Gerzso (1915 - 2000). Estructuras antiguas (Ancient Structures). 1955. oil on masonite. 92.00 X 60.00 cm. Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil. INBA. CONACULTA. This one's in the Santa Barbara Show. It reminds me of Hundertwasser. jeanne
• Gerzso's Lab-Na 1959. oil on canvas. 121.00 X 100.00 cm. Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil. INBA. CONACULTA.
• Mary-Anne Martin Fine Art Gallery. Some lovely pieces, including a sculpture, on this site. jeanne

Discussion Questions

1. Can you see the personage in Gerzso's El Personaje?

   Consider the little square at the top as a possible head. Consider the two columns below as possible legs.

2. What would the body be constructed of ?

   Consider the brick wall.

3. What medium is most closely represented?

   Consider stone, brick, dirt, hard mediums.

4. What in Gerzso's Mexican background is so related to brick, stone, dirt?

   Consider the primitive ruins of the indigenous peoples of Mexico.

5. What could possibly provide a conceptual link in this context to figurative art?

   Pre-Columbian stone figures of the indigenous peoples.

6. Now go back and look at El Personaje. Could you make a sociological context argument for the connection between buildings and people?

   Consider that we socially construct the context in which we live. We build buildings that work for the kind of society we have come to live in.