Henri Goetz

HENRI GÖETZ (United States, 1909 - France, 1989).
"Composition", 1978.
Mixed media on paper.
Signed and dated in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 28 x 37 cm; 30 x 39 cm (frame).
French-American painter and engraver, Henri Goetz is as well known for his work as for his invention of the carborundum engraving process, a procedure that uses carbon silicide as an abrasive. Born in New York, he began to draw as a child, feeling frustrated by the clumsiness of his drawings. He later began his training at the Grand Central School of Art in New York, and after finishing his studies there, in 1930 he went to Paris to broaden his knowledge. In the French capital he attended courses at the Colarossi, Julian and Grande Chaumière Academies, where he met his wife, the Dutch painter Christine Boumeester, born in Java. During these years Goetz already developed a personal surrealist style, which influenced his wife's work. In 1934, thanks to his friend Victor Bauer, an Austrian artist, Goetz held his first solo exhibition in London. It was also at this time that he met Hans Hartung, who introduced him to his circle of friends. Through him he comes into contact with Fernand Léger and Wassily Kandinsky. In 1937 he had his first exhibition in Paris, at the Bonaparte Gallery. After the outbreak of the Second World War, Goetz and his wife will collaborate with the French Resistance printing pamphlets and posters, although their main occupation will be to create identity cards. In 1939 Goetz, Christian Dotremont and Raoul Ubac created "La Main à Plume", the first surrealist publication under the occupation. After the war, Goetz devoted himself to visiting the studio of a different artist every week, and thus met Picasso, Brancusi, Julio Gonzalez, Picabia and Max Ernst. In 1947 he became the protagonist of Alain Resnais' short film "Portrait de Henri Goetz", made for the Musée National d'Art Moderne. Two years later, he began teaching, first independently and then at the Académie Ranson. Later he will also teach at the Grande Chaumière, and finally he will found his own academy, although he never charged for his lessons. In the meantime, he continued to exhibit his work in prominent European galleries. In 1968 he accepted a teaching position at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, but when the school closed due to student strikes two weeks later he moved to the University Paris 8. That same year his wife became ill, and three years later she died. After her death Goetz came across her diaries, which he published in a book with a foreword by himself. After being hospitalized for illness, the artist committed suicide by jumping from a window on the fifth floor of the hospital in Nice in 1989. He is currently represented at the Goetz-Boumeester Museum in Villefranche-sur-Mer, on the French Riviera, as well as at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Miró Foundation in Barcelona, the San Francisco Museum of Art, the French State Museum, the Budapest Museum, the National Museum of Modern Art in Brussels and many others around the world.