Elsa Gramcko (1925–1994) was a

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

n artist, known as an abstract sculptor and painter. Her earlier works, which date from 1954, were geometric paintings, while her later works were more tachist in nature."Gramcko, Elsa."
In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, (accessed February 11, 2012; subscription required). While her earlier works consisted of mostly paintings, she expanded into sculpture and assemblage in the 1960s and 1970s.

History

Elsa Gramcko was born 9 April 1925 in

Puerto Cabello Puerto Cabello () is a city on the north coast of Venezuela. It is located in Carabobo State, about 210 km west of Caracas. As of 2011, the city had a population of around 182,400. The city is home to the largest and busiest port in the coun ...

Carabobo , anthem = '' Himno del Estado Carabobo'' , image_map = Carabobo in Venezuela.svg , map_alt = , map_caption = Location within Venezuela , pushpin_map = , pushpin_map_ ...

to a German father and Venezuelan mother. Ida Gramcko, her sister, was an essayist and poet. In 1959, José Gómez Sicre curated her first solo show at the

Art Museum of the Americas Art Museum of the Americas (AMA), located in Washington, D.C., is the first art museum in the United States primarily devoted to exhibiting works of modern art, modern and contemporary art from Latin America and the Caribbean. The museum was forma ...

in Washington D.C. She represented Venezuela in the 1959

São Paulo Art Biennial The São Paulo Art Biennial (Portuguese: ''Bienal de São Paulo'') was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennale (in existence since 1895), which serves as ...

and in the 1964

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. In 1968 she was awarded the National Art Prize at the Official Salon of Venezuelan Art and in 1966 she became the first woman to obtain the first prize at the D'Empaire Salon held in Maracaibo, Zulia State, Venezuela. Her work is held in various private and public collections throughout Latin America and worldwide, including

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

(MOMA) and

Spencer Museum of Art The Spencer Museum of Art is an art museum operated by the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Spencer Museum seeks to "...present its collection as a living archive that motivates object-c ...

at the University of Kansas. She died in 1994, in

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

, Venezuela. In 2023 her work was included in the exhibition '' Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970'' at the

Whitechapel Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fir ...

in London.

References

External links

Elsa Gramcko (with examples of work)
on Artnet.com
Information on 2006 exhibit of work by Gramcko at the National Gallery of Venezuela
(in Spanish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gramcko, Elsa 1925 births 1994 deaths People from Puerto Cabello Venezuelan painters Venezuelan women sculptors Venezuelan women painters Venezuelan people of German descent 20th-century Venezuelan sculptors 20th-century women sculptors

History

References

Further reading

External links