Gego and Gerd Leufert, Tarmas, Venezuela, c. 1958. Courtesy Fundación Gego
Trailblazing Women Designers in Latin America
Meet 10 innovative artists who shaped how we live with modern design.
Amanda Forment, Ana Elena Mallet
Mar 14, 2024
“There is design in everything,” wrote Clara Porset. She believed that craft and industry could inspire each other, but not all of her colleagues agreed with her conviction. The exhibition Crafting Modernity: Design in Latin America, 1940–1980 presents these sometimes conflicting visions of modernity proposed by designers of home environments in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela between 1940 and 1980. Here, one of the exhibition’s curators highlights 10 women designers and artists to know, whose radical work, whether chairs or ceramics, buildings or rugs, revolutionized how we experience design in our lives.
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Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt) (Venezuelan, born Germany. 1912–1994)
Trained as an architect and engineer in Germany, Gego immigrated to Venezuela in 1939 to escape Nazi persecution. During the 1940s, Gego established a workshop that made furniture and rugs, among other items. She systematically examined the interplay between line, space, and volume across her visual practice, including in kinetic sculptures. Gego’s Loma Verde rug, named after a 1965 condominium building in Caracas designed by Venezuelan architect Jimmy Alcock, features a striking black backdrop adorned with abstract white and brown lines. These lines form parallels within the composition, which, contrasted against the texture of the weave, create a dynamic visual experience.