Gunther Gerzso (Mexican, born June 17, 1915–died April 21, 2000) was a painter and set designer best known for his abstract paintings based on architectural relationships and geometric structures. Born in Mexico City, Gerzso began building sets for a local theater in 1934, and established his career as a stage designer by working with legendary film directors such as Luis Buñuel and John Ford. Gerzso’s early paintings show the influence of Surrealist artists, including
Wolfgang Paalen,
Diego Rivera, and
José Clemente Orozco, as well as European artists such as
Henri Matisse and
Pablo Picasso.
In the 1950s, when he began to devote his time exclusively to painting, Gerzso moved toward abstraction. His mature paintings—often referred to as “architectonic abstractions”—synthesized the geometric style of architect
Le Corbusier with motifs found in Pre-Columbian art; works such as
Landscape at Papantla (1955) and
Verde-Azul-Blanco (1978) are reminiscent of Mayan temples and the lushness of the Mexican landscape. Gerzso has held solo exhibitions at several museums, such as the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and his work has been exhibited at the Musée Picasso in Antibes, France, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.