Henri Goetz
New York, 1909 – Nizza, Francia, 1989
His painting, tending to abstraction as early as about 1937, retains fantastic and dreamlike traces until after the Second World War, only to finally resolve into abstraction, using a gestural graphic sign of Eastern origin that can relate it to the work of Soulages and Hartung. In 1945 his conversations on modern art were broadcast via radio and in 1947 Alain Resnais made his first film: "Portrait of Henri Goetz".
He initially studied at Boston University and then at Harward, also attending private courses in painting and drawing. In 1930 he enrolled at the Central Art School in New York and the same year he moved to Paris where he studied at the Académie Julian, at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, where he attended Leger’s courses and met the Dutch painter Christine Boumeester (whom he married in 1935) in the Atelier Ozenfant. His neighbour on rue Bardiner is Victor Bauer, a highly cultured personality and former pupil of Kokoschka. He befriended Picabia, Arp, Picasso, Schneider, Hartung, Kandinsky. From 1935 he exhibited regularly at the Salon des Surindépendants. In 1937 he had his first solo exhibition with his wife at the Galerie Van Leer.
Although at the beginning he devoted himself mainly to the realist portrait, he soon showed himself sensitive to the Surrealist contributions. In 1940, with Christine, Dotremont and Ubac, he founded the surrealist magazine "La main à la plume". His painting, tending to abstraction as early as about 1937, retains fantastic and dreamlike traces until after the Second World War, only to finally resolve into abstraction, using a gestural graphic sign of Eastern origin that can relate it to the work of Soulages and Hartung. In 1945 his conversations on modern art were broadcast via radio and in 1947 Alain Resnais made his first film: "Portrait of Henri Goetz".
He also exhibited at the Salon de Mai, the Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme, the Galerie Maeght (1947 and 1949) and the Salon des Réalité Nouvelles in 1957.
In 1951 he taught at the Académie Ranson, in 1955 at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and finally at the Académie André Lhote. In 1969 he was professor of painting and engraving at the University of Vincennes.
In the sixties he returns to a figuration of objects and landscapes characterized by colored shapes, a living abstraction where, in an imaginary space, vibrant shapes and signs float.
Illustrator of important works such as La femme facile by Georges Hugnet (in collaboration with his wife) and Les chants de Maldoror by Lautréamont, he also made engravings and discovered, in 1970, the process called Carborundum.
In 1983, in Villefranche-sur-mer, the Goetz-Boumeester Museum was inaugurated, thanks to an important donation from the artist.
Museums:
Brazil
Israel
Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne; Centre G. Pompidou; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville);
Epinal (Musée départemental des Vosges), Tourcoing, Saint-Etienne, Grenoble, Saint-Quentin, Dunkerque, Villefranche-sur-mer (Musée Goetz-Boumeester) - France
Cincinnati, San Francisco, Oklaoma City - United States
Sweden
Hungary
Bibliography:
A.A.V.V., Henri Goetz, La Nuova Foglio Editrice, 1981; L. Harambourg, L’Ecole de Paris, 1945-1965, Neuchatel, Ides & Calendes, 1993 ; F. Nocera, Henri Goetz, Catalogue raisonné, Tome I, 1930-1960, Editions Garnier Nocera, 2001.
© Henry Goetz, by SIAE 2023
Although at the beginning he devoted himself mainly to the realist portrait, he soon showed himself sensitive to the Surrealist contributions. In 1940, with Christine, Dotremont and Ubac, he founded the surrealist magazine "La main à la plume". His painting, tending to abstraction as early as about 1937, retains fantastic and dreamlike traces until after the Second World War, only to finally resolve into abstraction, using a gestural graphic sign of Eastern origin that can relate it to the work of Soulages and Hartung. In 1945 his conversations on modern art were broadcast via radio and in 1947 Alain Resnais made his first film: "Portrait of Henri Goetz".
He also exhibited at the Salon de Mai, the Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme, the Galerie Maeght (1947 and 1949) and the Salon des Réalité Nouvelles in 1957.
In 1951 he taught at the Académie Ranson, in 1955 at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and finally at the Académie André Lhote. In 1969 he was professor of painting and engraving at the University of Vincennes.
In the sixties he returns to a figuration of objects and landscapes characterized by colored shapes, a living abstraction where, in an imaginary space, vibrant shapes and signs float.
Illustrator of important works such as La femme facile by Georges Hugnet (in collaboration with his wife) and Les chants de Maldoror by Lautréamont, he also made engravings and discovered, in 1970, the process called Carborundum.
In 1983, in Villefranche-sur-mer, the Goetz-Boumeester Museum was inaugurated, thanks to an important donation from the artist.
Museums:
Brazil
Israel
Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne; Centre G. Pompidou; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville);
Epinal (Musée départemental des Vosges), Tourcoing, Saint-Etienne, Grenoble, Saint-Quentin, Dunkerque, Villefranche-sur-mer (Musée Goetz-Boumeester) - France
Cincinnati, San Francisco, Oklaoma City - United States
Sweden
Hungary
Bibliography:
A.A.V.V., Henri Goetz, La Nuova Foglio Editrice, 1981; L. Harambourg, L’Ecole de Paris, 1945-1965, Neuchatel, Ides & Calendes, 1993 ; F. Nocera, Henri Goetz, Catalogue raisonné, Tome I, 1930-1960, Editions Garnier Nocera, 2001.
© Henry Goetz, by SIAE 2023
