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La Ciudad Perdida (The Lost City)

A work made of oil on hardboard.

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  • A work made of oil on hardboard.

Date:

1948

Artist:

Gunther Gerzso
Mexican, 1915–2000

About this artwork

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?”

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Contemporary Art

Artist

Gunther Gerzso

Title

La Ciudad Perdida (The Lost City)

Place

Mexico (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1948

Medium

Oil on hardboard

Inscriptions

Dated upper left: 'Mayo 1948' and signed lower right: 'Gerzso'

Dimensions

55.9 × 71.5 cm (22 × 28 1/8 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Muriel Kallis Newman

Reference Number

1980.283

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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