Goeritz, Mathias (1915–1990)

Mathias Goeritz (b. 4 April 1915; d. 1990), Mexican painter, sculptor, and teacher. Born in Danzig, Goeritz studied medicine, art, art history, and philosophy in Berlin. He arrived in Mexico in 1949 and began an active life in the arts as a teacher, artist, and founder of four art galleries between 1950 and 1952 in Guadalajara, Jalisco. He is primarily known for his experimental museum El Eco, constructed in Mexico City in 1953, and his great Plaza of the Five Towers, constructed in 1957–1958 in Satellite City, a suburb of Mexico City. The monumental size of the towers and the spatial integration of a sculpture with the floor and walls of El Eco influenced primary structure and minimalist sculptors of the United States and Mexico in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1960 Goeritz distributed "Please Stop," a printed leaflet, in front of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City to protest the exhibition of Jean Tinguely's Homage to New York, a self-destructing machine, because it exemplified the loss of spirituality in art. In 1961 a manifesto by Goeritz inspired Petro Friedeberg, José Luis Cuevas, and others to form a group in Mexico City called Los Hartos (Fed Up). Goertiz's other major works include Pyramid of Mixcose (1970) for a housing project in Mexico City; Centro del Espacio Escultorico (1979), sixty-four modules with sculpture near the ancient site of Cuicuilco; and Laberinto de Jerusalem (1973–1980), a community center in Jerusalem that is a wonderful example of sculpture combined with architecture.

See alsoThe Twentieth Century .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gregory Battcock, Minimal Art: A Critical Anthology (1968).

Frederico Morais, Mathias Goeritz (1982).

Additional Bibliography

Carvajal, Rina, and Alma Ruiz. The Experimental Exercise of Freedom: Lygia Clark, Gego, Mathias Goeritz, Hélio Octicica, Mira Schendel. Los Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1999.

Kassner, Lily S. de, and Mathias Goeritz. Mathias Goeritz. México, D.F.: Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1998.

Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, CA), et al. The Experimental Exercise of Freedom: Lygia Clark, Gego, Mathias Goeritz, Hélio Oiticica, Mira Schendel. Los Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1999.

                                     Jacinto Quirarte