Mathias Goeritz was a German-born Mexican sculptor, poet, art historian, architect and painter.
He is best known for his interest in what he called “emotional architecture,” which was a belief in objects that elicited an emotional response rather than objects purely for functionality. Goeritz’s public sculptures were often large-scale and inspired by prehistoric cave paintings and monoliths.
Born on April 4, 1915 in Danzig, Germany (now Gdansk, Poland), the artist grew up in Berlin.
He went on to study philosophy and the history of art at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn, while also studying art under Max Kaus and Hans Orlowski at the Berlin-Charlottenberg School of Arts and Crafts.
Goeritz left Germany in 1941 to escape World War II, first settling in Morocco, then Spain, and then in Mexico, where he worked as a teacher. During the 1950s, the artist worked with the architect Luis Barragán to produce massive, abstract concrete sculptures, and Goeritz first presented his “Manifiesto de la Arquitectura Emocional” (“Emotional Architecture Manifesto”). Goeritz’s works are in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, among others.
He died on August 4, 1990 in Mexico City, Mexico.
 

Werner Mathias Goeritz Brunner (4 April 1915, Danzig, German Empire - 4 August 1990, Mexico City) was a Mexican sculptor, poet, art historian, architect and painter of German origin. After spending much of the 1940s in North Africa and Spain, he and his wife, photographer Marianne Gast, immigrated to Mexico in 1949.

Mathias Goeritz was born in Danzig, German Empire in 1915 and spent his childhood in Berlin. He began studying philosophy and the history of art at Berlin's Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität, now known as the Humboldt University of Berlin, in 1934.
He received a doctorate in art history from this institution in 1940.
His doctoral dissertation on the nineteenth-century German painter Ferdinand von Rayski was published as Ferdinand Von Rayski und die Kunst des Neunzehnten Jahrhunderts.
During the course of his studies, Goeritz also trained as an artist at the Kunstgewerbe- und Handwerkerschule in Berlin-Charlottenberg (Applied arts and tradesmen's school), where he studied drawing with German artists Max Kaus and Hans Orlowski.

Upon completion of his doctorate, Goeritz worked at Berlin's Nationalgalerie (National Gallery), now the Alte Nationalgalerie, under the supervision of nineteenth-century art specialist Paul Ortwin Rave.

In early 1941, in the midst of the Second World War, Goeritz left Germany, settling first in Tetuan, Morocco. In 1942 he married photographer Marianne Gast, and the couple settled in Granada, Spain, just after the war ended in 1945.

In June 1946, he had his first solo exhibition at the Librería-Galería Clan in Madrid under the pseudonym "Ma-Gó". In 1947 the Goeritzs relocated to Madrid. There, Goeritz developed a close friendship with Spanish sculptor Ángel Ferrant.

In the summer of 1948, Goeritz and Ferrant traveled to visit the prehistoric paintings of the Cave of Altamira in the north of Spain, along with writer Ricardo Gullón and others. At that time Goeritz proposed the founding of an Escuela de Altamira (Altamira School), an association of artists and writers who would meet annually near the Cave, in 1948. The Escuela de Altamira would ultimately hold two meetings, in 1949 and 1950.

In 1949, Through the intervention of Mexican architect Ignacio Díaz Morales, Goeritz was offered a job teaching art history to the students of the newly founded Escuela de Arquitectura in Guadalajara, Mexico.
In 1953 he first presented his "Manifiesto de la Arquitectura Emocional" (Emotional Architecture Manifesto) at the pre-inauguration of the Museo Experimental El Eco in Mexico City, which he designed in 1952–53. During the 1950s, Goeritz also collaborated with Luis Barragán to make monumental abstract sculptures in reinforced concrete, including El animal del Pedregal (The Animal of the Pedregal, 1951) and the Torres de la Ciudad Satélite (Towers of Satellite City, 1957).

In 1942 he married photographer Marianne Gast. He died in Mexico City on August 4, 1990.

Goeritz exhibited widely in Mexico and beyond throughout his life, and had a significant influence on younger Mexican artists such as Helen Escobedo and Pedro Friedeberg.

·         El animal del Pedregal (The Animal of Pedregal, 1951), sculpture in reinforced concrete, Jardines de Pedregal de San Ángel, Mexico City.

·         Los amantes (The Lovers), sculpture at the Hotel Presidente, Acapulco.

·         El bailarín (The Dancer).

·         La mano divina (The Divine Hand) and La mano codiciosa (The Covetous Hand), reliefs in the Iglesia de San Lorenzo, Mexico City.

·         El Eco Museo Experimental ("El Eco" Experimental Museum, 1953), Mexico City.

·         El Pájaro Amarillo (The Yellow Bird, 1957) Colonia Jardines del Bosque, Guadalajara.

·         Torres de la Ciudad Satélite (Towers of Satellite City, 1957) with Luis Barragán.

·         Stained Glass windows for the cathedrals of Mexico City and Cuernavaca, the churches of Santiago Tlatelolco and Azcapotzalco, and the Maguén-David synagogue, Mexico City.

·         Coordination of the sculptures of the Ruta de la Amistad (Route of Friendship), a major project of the Cultural Program of the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.

·         Osa Mayor (Ursa Major, 1968), Palacio de los Deportes, Mexico City.

·         Torres de Automex (Automex Towers, 1963–64), Carretera de Toluca.

·         Pirámide de Mixcoac (Mixcoac Pyramid, 1971), Mexico City.

·         Murals for the Arco Tower in Los Angeles, California, United States, 1970.

·         Corona de Bambi and Espacio Escultórico (Sculpture Space, 1979), Ciudad Universitaria, UNAM, Mexico City.

·         Laberinto de Jerusalén (Jerusalem Labyrinth), 1978-1980.

·         Massive bronze entry door for the John Lautner-designed residence "Marbrisa", Acapulco, 1973. 

Mathias Goertiz was a German painter, sculptor, and teacher who was active in Mexico. He was born in Poland (then Germany) in 1912 and studied philosophy and art history in Berlin at Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität, also attending some courses in fine arts and receiving his doctorate in 1940.  Also in 1940, he immigrated to Spanish Morocco, where he worked as a teacher until 1944. He returned to Europe at the end of World War II in 1945, settling in Spain: first in Granada, then in Madrid, and finally in Santillana, near Santander. There, he devoted himself to painting, meeting avant-garde artists, and in 1948, helping to found the Escuela de Altamira, which represented a call to artistic rebellion and propounded absolute creative freedom.

In 1949, Goeritz settled in Mexico and became a professor of visual education and drawing at the Escuela de Arquitectura of the Universidad de Guadalajara, at the invitation of the school’s director, Ignacio Díaz Morales (1905–92). On moving to Mexico City in 1954, Goeritz continued to teach and entered a richly productive period, particularly with his sculpture. He produced a series of Heads made from gourds or cast in bronze as well as public sculptures such as “The Animal of the Pedregal” (1954) for the Jardines del Pedregal de San Angel in Mexico City. He also worked productively in collaboration with a number of architects, especially Barragán, with whom he created a monumental sculpture: The Towers of Satélite, for the Ciudad Satélite in Mexico state in 1957. 

In 1961, Goeritz participated at the Galería Antonio Souza in a group exhibition: Los hartos, for which he published another manifesto. Other participants included José Luis Cuevas and Pedro Friedeberg, with whom he instrumentally established abstractions and other modern trends in Mexico. Through his foreign contacts, Goeritz was able to help commission sculptures in Mexico by well-known foreign artists, for example a series of 18 works known as La ruta de la amistad (1968) in Mexico City, as well as to execute works of his own abroad, notably at the Alejandro and Lilly Saltiel community centre in Jerusalem (1975–80).

Additional Information:

Mathias Goeritz Brunner was a sculptor, poet, art historian, architect and painter born in Germany who lived most of his life in Mexico. Goeritz focused on form, texture and colour to arouse emotions with his creations. He founded the movement of Emotional Architecture, where he thought of architecture as a form of art and spirituality where emotion surpassed the practical and functional purpose of the form. This opposition to functionalism was deeply developed and manifested in a series of creations that majorly influenced a new cultural and artistic scene in Mexico which are still recognized not only in the country but all around the world.  

Mathias Goertiz was born in Danzig, Germany in 1915. He studied in the School of Arts and Works of Charlottenburg, Berlin and obtained a PhD in Philosophy and Art History at the University of Friedrich-Wilhems. Later on, he studied and worked in several parts of Europe, including Paris where he learned at the School of Paris where Picasso, Chagall and other artists studied too, in the following short period of time he studied in Switzerland as a disciple of Paul Klee. On his return to Berlin, 1941 to 1942 he was the director of the National Gallery (Museum for XIX century paintings). Goeritz was of Jewish descent and with the rise of the nationalistic movement in Germany he was forced to flee to Tetouan, Morocco where he lived and worked as an academic before living in Spain to work as a painter.

In 1949 he was invited to work as an academic in Mexico. This would prove his most productive and creative era of his lifetime, creating the monuments, theoretical movements, paintings and artworks that now best represent him. His life in Mexico as an artistic figure was so determining that Goeritz also nationalized as Mexican. His vision influenced a full restructuration of the artistic paradigm that prevailed in Mexico and Latin-America, which were mainly influenced by European and American tendencies. 
These are some of his most iconic artworks:

Museo Experimental “El Eco” (The Echo Experimental Museum) – 1952.

In 1952 Mathias Goeritz was commissioned by a local entrepreneur to envision the creation of a cultural space for private purposes. One year later, the Museum was designed and founded under the Manifesto of Emotional Architecture, where Goeritz imprinted his vision on this building of focusing on emotiveness and subjectivity, suppressing function and rationality unlike the current worldwide of architecture at that time. The Echo Museum was established as a multidisciplinary space where different practices of culture and art coexisted with an architecture that would organically flow with these performs. The purpose of this building, (as his movement also established) was to promote, expand and mirror the sensibility end emotionality of humans, hence the name "The Echo". This building is considered a cornerstone in Mexico’s modern art scene.

La Serpiente del Eco (The Echo’s Serpent) – 1953

The day "The Echo Museum" was inaugurated, Walter Hicks represented a choreographed dance orchestrated by famous surrealist film director Luis Buñuel. The dancers would execute this choreography with "The Serpent" as a stage and a character itself. This sculpture is a large-format prismatic piece that is halfway between geometry and abstraction. This work is also an interpretation of part of the mythology of Ancient Mexico and is recognized as an iconic piece by the artist.

Emotional Architecture – 1954

In that year, Goertiz published the “Emotional Architecture Manifesto”. This was done at a time when monumental public spaces where being built in Mexico, this new arrival established a shift of paradigm from functionalism to sensitivity which influenced many of those creations. This trend established the conjunction of colour, light and water to create new atmospheres and highlight the senses. The focus was to incite sensations on whoever observed these artworks through the use of shapes, space and volume.

Torres de Satélite (Satélite Towers) – 1957-1958

Mexican Pritzker award-winning Luis Barragán and Goeritz designed "Las Torres de Satélite", a group of sculptures composed of 5 triangular prisms of different shapes and colours (the tallest is 30 meters tall and the smallest is 52 meters). These sculptures are positioned in one of the most important intercity highways of Mexico City at the entrance of Ciudad Satélite, a suburban area outside the city founded around those years. This new suburban area held the promise of a new urban system of modernity and economic prosperity and thus that was the symbolic meaning of the towers. In 2012 the sculptures were declared as national artistic heritage and is still a well-recognized landmark in the city. 

El Mensaje (The Message) – 1959

Mensajes Dorados is the name of a series of abstract artworks that the German painter made from 1959 onwards. Several golden creations which were not made of paint, but instead covered in sheets of gold. Some of them are simply monochromatic pieces, while others were severely punctured by the artist in a rhythmic way, creating meaningful combinations of small dots. These seem to contain an abstract writing or a coded message. This message conveyed a divine message and were mainly used for decoration in specific architectural spaces that would resonate with his vision.

La Ruta de la Amistad (Friendship Path) – 1968

In that year Goeritz was placed in charge of the cultural and artistic international promotion as part of the committee of the XIX Olympic Games “Mexico ’68”. In his role, he commissioned “The Friendship Route”, the biggest sculpture corridor of the world, in Mexico City. A 17km pathway holding 19 sculptures built with concrete by artists from all 5 continents. Amongst them, Alexander Calder, the author of the Red Sun, built a statue still visible next to the Azteca football stadium.

El Centro del Espacio Escultórico (The Center of the Sculptural Space) – 1979

One of the best-known artworks of Mathias Goeritz is placed inside an artistic project designed by sculptor Federico Silva, where several artists were invited to exhibit large-scale sculptures inside a monumental space of the world-known UNAM (Autonomous National University of Mexico). Goertiz presented the biggest of them, grouping a series of prismatic blocks of concrete in which a centre the original natural lava surrounded by a garden of endemic flowers. This monument to “nothingness” as named by himself, was a tribute to the indigenous cosmogony. The intention of this piece was to mix art and ecology, having as a final product a circular edification with a perimeter of 120 meters of diameter.

Conclusions

The artworks of Mathias Goeritz went through many different aspects of social reality. He worked for private owners as for the government, he created sculptures for universities and also for religious institutions. This artist was an honorary member of the Berlin Arts Academy and the Royal Academy of The Hague in Nederland. Achieving awards like Elias Sourasky his works have been exhibited around the world and his legacy had huge influences not only in Mexico but in all Latin America.

Written by Eduardo Alva Lòpez