A leading figure of Venezuelan abstraction of the 1960s and 1970s, Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt) was born in 1912 in Hamburg, Germany. She graduated with a degree in architecture and engineering from the University of Stuttgart in 1938. With the advent of World War II, she migrated to Venezuela, settling in Caracas in 1939. Gego began her artistic career in the 1950s. At the time, geometric abstraction had become the symbol of artistic modernity in Venezuela, evidenced by the growing international reputations of Venezuelan artists Alejandro Otero, Jesús Rafael Soto, and Carlos Cruz-Diez. In 1957, as many of her contemporaries began making kinetic work, Gego challenged the conventions associated with static artworks. Though her sculptures appear to be in motion, this is an illusion produced by the viewer's own movement.

Gego developed a distinctive approach to geometric abstraction, reflecting her architectural training. Her work is characterized by the use of delicate three-dimensional lines, often made in steel wire. Through their interaction with a complex system of knots, these lines expand into space, both defining a volume and exposing the work's construction.