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From 1935 to 1941 Gunther Gerzso labored as a designer for the Cleveland Playhouse in Ohio. He designed sets and costumes. During this key period Gerzso was a full time designer and part time painter. Works done in this period tell the story of the transition.
 Gunther Gerzso was born on June 17, 1915 in Mexico DF. Gerzso’s Hungarian-born father, Oscar, had migrated to Mexico in the early 1890’s. His mother was a singer and pianist. In 1927, Gerzso’s parents sent him to Switzerland to live with his uncle who was an art collector, dealer and art historian. It was a key time. The only formal artistic education Gerzso would receive was during his time with his uncle. While living at his uncle’s estate, he met Italian stage designer Nando Tamberlani, who encouraged Gerzso to become a set designer. His stay in Switzerland ended because of the Great Depression. His uncle was forced to sell his estate; subsequently, Gunther was sent home to Mexico to finish up school.
In 1934, was introduced to another thespian; Fernando Wagner, an actor, producer and director worked on productions by authors such as Mòliere and Lope de Vega. During the same year he became acquainted with Arch Lauterer, a former set designer for the Cleveland Playhouse. The next year, Gunther moved to Cleveland and began his work as set designer and costume designer of the Playhouse at his friend’s recommendation. It was here that he met his wife and where he met Thomas Ireland. Mr. Ireland was both an actor and director for the Playhouse as well as a great admirer of young Gunther. Because Ireland saw great potential in his work, he encouraged Gerzso. As a result, Ireland was given, and saved, many drawings, paintings, watercolors and set designs that Gunther worked on throughout his five years at the playhouse.
Gerzso was also encouraged by his friend Bernard Pfriem, an art student, who gave him his first set of oils and advised him to dedicate himself to painting full- time. While he was unable to pursue his painting to that degree, Gerzso made excellent use of the gift by painting as often as possible while he labored at the Playhouse. The summers between playhouse seasons were spent painting in Mexico. Here Gerzso was introduced to Paris Surrealist painters including Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington and Roberto Matta who all lived and worked in Mexico DF. They all shared admiration for Picasso, Ernst, Klee, and Surrealist Painting. They frequented each other’s studios, gathering and sharing their ideas and thoughts.
Gerzso returned to Mexico DF in 1941 per the advice of his friends to become a “full-time” painter. He soon become involved in designing sets for Mexican, French and American Film companies, completing over 250 films in 20 years. It wasn’t until the 1960’s that Gerzso was able to make the transition for part-time painter to full-time. This however has not detracted from his proficiency as an artist, his insight as a human being, certainly not his creativity or his collectibility. Gerzso’s market is incredible lucrative and different from the other Latin American artists.
Gerzso lived in Mexico DF until his recent death on April 20, 2000. He is survived by his wife and two sons. He left an incredible body of wok; it’s a legacy that assures him immortality of both mind and spirit, in defiance of the frailty of his human body and painter’s hands.
The Ireland Collection
The Ireland Collection is comprised of the works of Gerzso’s formative period. The collection contains paintings, drawings, and set designs that Gerzso produced while working at the Playhouse and during his summers in Mexico. The works of this period exhibit the artist’s exploration of style, and search for focus and direction in his painting. He investigated the European modernist, cubist and surrealist movements, then Pre-Columbian and contemporary Mexican art. The influence of fellow Mexican artists Orozco, Siqueiros and Varo, combined with Gerzso’s own search, would result in the deconstructive style that would eventually be identified as his own.
 Ireland was excited by Gerzso’s creativity and his obvious search for a tangible way of expressing himself and his world. The works from the early period lay out for us the many stages that the artist traversed before he settled on the distinct abstractive style that he would later develop. Gerzso’s formation as an artist was atypical. He came into himself as he got older and experienced and learned more about his life. He was an educated man and, by all accounts, a great reader and therefore thinker. And the works from this period reveal the phenomenal thinking and intellect behind the talented hands that painted.
One of the most important lessons the modern artist of the last century learned, was in order to deconstruct the human image and, subsequently, the human mind, he/she first must learn how to construct it. Wassily Kandinsky said “I myself was not yet sufficiently mature to experience purely abstract form without bridging the gap by means of objects”. Kandinsky’s career matured much in the same way as Gerzso’s. His early works, done around 1889 in Russia, reflect the influence of both Dutch and Belgian painters of the time. Gerzso’s Four Bathers is strongly reminiscent of Picasso, Cezanne and Matisse in the focus of color, form and subject matter as an avenue to developing a visual language of his own. It also shows the strong influence of the Mexican muralists and the beginnings of his exploration into Surrealism.
 As Kandinsky’s evolution continued, he began deconstructing those objects and people in his works from 1916 and subsequently by 1921 his signature style was highly developed. Gerzso’s formation was founded in stacking like shapes on a picture plane. In Four Bathers he uses the four women, all have a similar geometric shape and weight, and they are placed in an ambiguous space with only a small boy in the centre to divide the picture plane. Gerzso combined two lessons in one. By placing the human figure in a group in an isolated setting, he is exploring the mind and the body simultaneously which later he will break down to its simplest components.
While he is primarily known for his distinctly abstract style, the earlier works, appeal to the figurative eye, to the collector that understands process and composition, which enjoys the shape, color and form, constructed or deconstructed. A great artist is not just someone that has great skill using a brush and canvas. Great art is about the artist’s intention, the critical thinking and deeply intellectual process that happens prior, during and long after the work has been completed. So much so, that it continues to touch us on many levels generation after generation. The Ireland Collection speaks to this process and speaks to Gunther Gerzso’s greatness.
The Loft Gallery proudly presents the exhibition:
EARLY WORKS BY GUNTHER GERZSO
From the
Thomas Ireland Collection.
Inauguration: Friday November 3rd. 2006 - 7:00 – 10:00 pm.
Ruben Cham
Strawn / Cham Projects – The Loft Gallery
Corona 176 – A, Zona Centro
Phone: 52 [322] 222-63 53 Cel.: 322 135-6303
E-mail: ruben.cham@yahoo.com.mx
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