In 1957, Gramcko developed a new series of untitled oil paintings in which she represented biomorphic and bulbous shapes and machine-like, isolated gears on monochromatic backgrounds. Gramcko stated, “Although I...
In 1957, Gramcko developed a new series of untitled oil paintings in which she represented biomorphic and bulbous shapes and machine-like, isolated gears on monochromatic backgrounds. Gramcko stated, “Although I was using a hard line and flat color, the forms were more expressive than they were geometric.” In “Sin título (Untitled)”, 1957, vertical tubular elements dominate the image, resembling spines or metal pumps on an earth-toned background.
Critic Carlos Sánchez described the work from this period of Gramcko’s production as closer to geometric abstraction but with an unconscious element emphatically present. He wrote, "...these works don’t abandon the magical, fantastic and suprareal atmosphere that accompanies all of Elsa’s work. The search for ‘the new reality’ that has a more apparent development in her later periods is also present in these paintings. Some things that are very reminiscent of leaves, bones or carapaces reveal a certain allusion to the material, derived as they are from an expressive need seen in the forms she had discovered in her early period.”
Elsa Gramcko, Caracas, Venezuela
Luis Felipe Farias, Caracas, Venezuela
Publications
Rangel Gabriela, Aruna D’Souza. Elsa Gramcko: The Invisible Plot of Things. Published by Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, James Cohan, printed by Faenza Group, Italy, 2022, p. 47.