In the middle of the pond, a thesis on balance, gravity and emptiness. Its curved lines, a reinterpretation of the ouroboros, converse with the water and with the large bald cypress beside it.
Gerardo Wohlgemuth
Different reviews can be summarized in the following statement about his work:
The gesture in space as the epic of sculpture is the center of his production. His work is an invocation of the possibility of the representation of the forces in space.
The artist constructs and creates iron sculptures with the forcefulness of an ancestral material that refers us to fire and to the atavistic elements.
The alchemy of the metal and its union with the landscape of nature creates a mystical alliance of introspection and contemplation.
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The KnotGerardo Wohlgemuth · Iron · Sculpture
In the middle of the pond, a thesis on balance, gravity and emptiness. Its curved lines, a reinterpretation of the ouroboros, converse with the water and with the large bald cypress beside it.
Works at Bellatrix
Gerardo Wohlgemuth’s work, set in the middle of the Bellatrix pond, lets us contemplate the space in a different way. There is an interplay between the trees and the sculpture, which seems to be part of the natural surroundings.
In winter, the color of the rusted iron matches the great taxodium beside it. In every season the sculpture converses with the changing colors of nature.
El Nudo (The Knot) is a thesis on balance, gravity and emptiness. The gesture in space, like a drawing floating above the water, gives the pond area a mystical air.
We like to think that the curved lines of El Nudo represent life, and how all lives are connected. How we are all one with the Universe.
The different critical views on his work can be summed up as follows:
“His sculptures are born as a meditation; they are the calligraphy of a body drawing the figure of an ouroboros, an invocation of the possibility of representing forces in space.
The stroke of the infinite circle takes shape in his sculptures, drawings and paintings, defying gravity while standing at the very edge of lightness. He builds in space and creates iron sculptures with the forcefulness of an ancestral material that takes us back to fire and to atavistic elements.
The alchemy of metal and its union with the natural landscape create a mystical alliance of introspection and contemplation.”
In the words of Albino Dieguez Videla: “Gerardo Wohlgemuth’s works have a visual impact similar to that of the Spaniard Chillida’s. Their individual grandeur keeps pace with the ensemble one imagines outdoors, contrasting with greens and blues and merging into a whole, as seems to be the ambition of these monumental pieces that contain the rigor of the most perfect forms.”
Referring to this review, Gerardo Wohlgemuth explains: several years have passed since my first solo exhibition at an art gallery, Principium, and time has proved this renowned critic right.
Today many of my works, like the one we see at Bellatrix, have found their place in such natural settings. The alchemy of metal and its union with the natural landscape create a spiritual alliance of introspection and contemplation.
My works, mostly simple in form and austere like their material, iron corroded by the passing of time, speak of their timelessness. The philosophy of Wabi Sabi has always accompanied me, perhaps unconsciously, in my work. Wabi, which broadly means “the elegant beauty of humble simplicity”, and Sabi, which means “the passing of time and the deterioration that follows”. The beauty of imperfection.
This piece was born as a meditation; it is a reinterpretation of the figure of an Ouroboros, where beginning and end follow each other without interruption. The stroke of the infinite circle takes shape in this sculpture.
Biography
Born in 1960 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Architect, graduated in 1987, and visual artist (studied with Adrián Dorado and Hugo Padeletti). First Prize at the National Salon of Visual Arts of Argentina, 2000.
“Since 2010, delving deeper into the themes arising from the archetype of the Ouroboros, he has explored it through different techniques: engraving and embossing, with the help of Leonardo Gotleib, and the use of digital technologies to cut different materials.” arte-online.net
Exhibitions
- Galería Colección Ángeles Novas, A Coruña, Spain
- Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires
- Municipal Exhibition Center, San Martín de los Andes, Neuquén
- Galería Principium
- Hotel Sheraton Pilar
- Galería Contemporánea, Embassy of Belgium
- Centro Cultural General San Martín, Buenos Aires
- Galería Arthus, Brussels, Belgium
- Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Mendoza
- Art Chicago International Exposition
- Société Électricité de France, Paris
Among others.
Awards and honors
- Salón de Escultura Contemporánea Americana (First Prize)
- Salón de General Rodríguez, sculpture (First Prize)
- Salón Félix Amador, Vicente López, painting (First Prize)
- Salón AAGA / Salón Enrique Romano (First Prize)
- Small-format Abstract Painting Salon (First Prize)
- Salón SAAP de Vicente López (Third Prize)
- Salón de Otoño, Agrupación Artística Quinquela (Second Prize)
- Small-format Salon, Municipality of Tres de Febrero (First Prize)
- Salón Agrupación Artística Quinquela (Second Prize)