Mathias Goeritz Mexican, 1915-1990

Mathias Goeritz’s body of work is ample: ranging from German expressionism to geometric abstraction, from religious art to proto-minimalism, and from architecture to concrete poetry. Among other activities, he was a sculptor, architect, painter, art critic, teacher, and prolific writer. Born in Danzig, Germany, Goeritz developed a strong belief (found in German expressionism) in art's utopian possibilities and social obligations. Goeritz belonged to the generation of European artists who found in faith an antidote to the moral crisis instigated by the traumas of World War II.

In 1940, he received his doctorate in art history and started working at Berlin’s Nationalgalerie. He was able to leave Germany just a year later by getting a teaching job in Tétouan, Morocco. He married photographer Marianne Gast and relocated to Granada, Spain, in 1945. This is where he had his first solo exhibition under

the pseudonym “Ma-Gó.” In 1949, he was invited to teach art history at the Escuela de Arquitectura in Guadalajara, Mexico, by architect Ignacio Díaz Morales. In 1953 he created the Museo Experimental El Eco. He wrote the “Emotional Architecture Manifesto,” in which he argued for architectural designs which could evoke emotional responses from those who viewed and interacted with these spaces.

A selection of his solo exhibitions include: Fundación Malba, Buenos Aires (2010); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2014); Palacio de Cultura Banamex, México DF (2015); Galería La Caja Negra, Madrid (2015); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2015); Museo Experimental El Eco, Mexico City (2016); Proyecto Paralelo, México City (2018); Henrique Faria, New York (2019); Galleria Freijo, Madrid (2020); and Museo Amparo (2016).

His work is included in, though not limited to, the following collections: Museum of Modern Art, New York; Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; Museo Tamayo, México City; Tate Modern, London, UK; Pompidou Center, Paris, France; the Jewish Museum, New York; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh.