Mathias Goeritz

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Towers of Ciudad Satélite.

Mathias Goeritz (complete name according to Spanish-speaking manner: Werner Matthias Goeritz Brunner) (April 4, 1915 in Danzig (Gdańsk), Germany (now in Poland)) - August 4, 1990 in Mexico City) was a well-known Mexican painter and sculptor of German origin. Being of Jewish origin, Goeritz moved from his homeland to Mexico during the Second World War.^[1]

Mathias Goeritz spent his childhood in Berlin. He first studied medicine, but changed direction when he started his Philosophy major at the Friedrich Wilhelms Universitat. He finally graduated with a doctorate in art history from this institution, now known as the Humboldt University. His training as an artist was made at the Berlin Charlottenburg School of Art, where he studied drawing. With the pressure mounting from the Second World War, Goeritz had to leave Germany and settled first in Tetuan, Morocco in 1941, Granada, Spain in 1945 and Santilla del Mar in 1948 where he founded the Escuela de Altamira.

With the help of Ignacio Diaz Morales, he found a job as a professor of Architecture at the University of Guadalajara in 1949. By then he was an accomplished artist and in 1953 his rise to fame in Mexico came when he published his "Manifiesto de la Arquitectura Emocional" (The Emotional Architecture Manifesto). In this essay he argued that architecture could only be called art it achieved true emotions from the spectator. He also founded the Museo del Eco in Mexico City this same year. This museum would later be abandoned until its renovation in 2005. He collaborated with Luis Barragan to make monumental sculptures in Mexico City. His most noted works are El Animal and the Torres de Satelite where his friends Luis Barragan and Chucho Reyes were also involved.

Mathias Goeritz exhibited widely in Europe and America, sometimes under the pseudonym "Mago". His art is a mixture of Dadaism, Expressionism and Constructivism that he called Geometrism and influenced a whole generation of Mexican artists for over two decades. He died in Mexico City on August 4, 1990.

Works

• El animal (The animal) (1949) sculpture in Pedregal de San Ángel, Mexico City.
• Los amantes (The lovers) sculpture in Presidente Hotel in Acapulco.
• El bailarín (The dancer), movil sculpture.
• El animal herido (The hurt animal), movil sculpture.
• La mano divina (The divine hand) and La mano codiciosa (The avarice hand) reliefts in San Lorenzo church, Mexico City.
• El Eco, museum, (1953) Mexico City.
• El Parajo Amarillo, (1957) Colonia Jardines del Bosque, Guadalajara.
• Torres de Satélite (Satellite towers), Ciudad Satélite, 1957-1958, with Luis Barragán.
• Vitrals for the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City and Cuernavaca and Santiago Tlatelolco, San Lorenzo, Azcapotzalco churches and Maguén-David synagogue.
• Coordination for the sculptures of Ruta de la amistad (Friendship route), maded for the Olympic Games of 1968.
• Osa Mayor (Major Bear), sculpture in Palacio de los Deportes, Mexico City, 1968.
• Torre Automex (Automex Tower), 1962, Toluca.
• Pirámide de Mixcoac (Mixcoac pyramid), 1971, Mexico City.
• Steel murals in the Arco Tower in Los Angeles, California, USA, 1970.
• Corona del Pedregal in the Espacio Escultórico (Sculptoric space) of the Ciudad Universitaria (campus) of UNAM, Mexico City.
• Laberinto de Jerusalén (Jerusalem Labirynth) in Israel, 1978-1980.

See also

• List of people from Danzig

References

• Mathias Goeritz, Olivia Zuniga (Author) 1963
• Mathias Goeritz, 1915-1990: Monographie mit Werkverzeichnis (Tuduv-Studien), Elke Werry (Author) 1994 (in German)
• Conversaciones con Mathias Goeritz, Mario Monteforte Toledo (Author) 1993 (in Spanish)

• Noyola Anticuarios. "Biography of Mathias Goeritz", Mathias Goeritz on Noyola Anticuarios.

Notes

External links

• Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)