Pad (Jun 2020)
Gertrud Goldschmidt and Ruth Vollmer Mathematical Experimentations and the Legacy of Bauhaus Trained Women
Abstract
Gertrud Goldschmidt (commonly known as Gego) and Ruth Vollmer (née Land- schoff) were two Jewish women artists that migrated from Germany to America, due to the advent of Nazism. To contribute to their critical reconfiguration, this arti- cle explores their important role as women and refugee artists in representing the bridge between modernism and postmodernism in the context of sculpture and decorative arts. Indeed, combining craftmanship and a fascination with mathemat- ical theories revealed through the drawing’s complexity, the shape’s definition and the value of material, they reinvented the artistic tradition within design approaches. Incorporating aspects of kinetic art, Gego made three-dimensional constructions with which she attempted to challenge the conventions associated with static artworks. Vollmer experimented with wire, steel, and copper mesh to create figu- ral forms that derive from complex constructions of mathematical theories. Even though Gego and Vollmer had no direct impact on one another, they did share the vital New York and they were both influenced by a European avant-garde heritage of Bauhaus and Russian Constructivism. This article seeks to give a new voice to these pioneering women’s artistic dis- courses, that were extremely inventive in the creation of an experimental design minimalism and a mathematical formalism.
