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Art Institute of Chicago

Spotted

Gunther Gerzso — La Ciudad Perdida (The Lost City)
Gunther Gerzso

La Ciudad Perdida (The Lost City)

1948

Born in Mexico to a Hungarian-German-Jewish family, Gunther Gerzso spent his earliest years in Mexico and Switzerland. His intricate abstract works, like Lost City, show the dueling influences of European Cubism and Pre-Columbian art. Of his interest in ancient indigenous objects he once said, “I guess this could sound ridiculous because my mother was German and my father Hungarian. What did I have to do with Pre-Columbian art? And yet I was attracted to it in a tremendously emotional way….I can’t explain it: I felt that I had something in common with the artists who had created these objects. And I also told myself, I live in Mexico….Why don’t I make something that belongs to this country?”

Medium
Oil on hardboard
Dimensions

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About this work

Gunther Gerzso, La Ciudad Perdida (The Lost City), 1948

Born in Mexico to a Hungarian-German-Jewish family, Gunther Gerzso spent his earliest years in Mexico and Switzerland. His intricate abstract works, like Lost City, show the dueling influences of European Cubism and Pre-Columbian art. Of his interest in ancient indigenous objects he once said, “I guess this could sound ridiculous because my mother was German and my father Hungarian. What did I have to do with Pre-Columbian art? And yet I was attracted to it in a tremendously emotional way….I can’t explain it: I felt that I had something in common with the artists who had created these objects. And I also told myself, I live in Mexico….Why don’t I make something that belongs to this country?”

Medium
Oil on hardboard
Dimensions
55.9 x 71.5 cm
Year
1948
Seen at
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Related themes

Post-War, Modern, Unique Work

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Collected by

Art Institute of Chicago