HENRI GÖETZ (United States, 1909 - France, 1989). "Composition. Mixed... Lot 8

HENRI GÖETZ (United States, 1909 - France, 1989). "Composition. Mixed media on canvas. Signed in the lower right corner. Size: 60 x 90 cm; 82 x 114 cm (frame). A French-American painter and printmaker, Henri Goetz is as well known for his work as for his invention of the carborundum etching process, which uses carbon silicide as an abrasive. Born in New York, he began to draw as a child, although he was frustrated by the clumsiness of his drawings. He later began his training at the Grand Central School of Art in New York, and after completing his studies there, he went to Paris in 1930 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, who was born in Java. Around this time Goetz was already developing 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 came into contact with Fernand Léger and Wassily Kandinsky. In 1937 he held his first exhibition in Paris at the Bonaparte gallery. After the outbreak of the Second World War, Goetz and his wife collaborated with the French Resistance by printing pamphlets and posters, although their main occupation was 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 a different artist's studio every week, meeting Picasso, Brancusi, Julio González, Picabia and Max Ernst. In 1947 he became the protagonist of Alain Resnais's short film "Portrait de Henri Goetz", made for the Musée National d'Art Moderne. Two years later, he began teaching, first independently and shortly afterwards at the Académie Ranson. Later he also taught at the Grande Chaumière, and finally founded his own academy, although he never charged for his lessons. In the meantime, he continued to exhibit his work in leading European galleries. In 1968 he accepted a teaching post at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, but when the school closed due to student strikes two weeks later he moved to the University of Paris 8. After her death Goetz came across her diaries, which he published in a book with a foreword by himself. After being hospitalised 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 in the Goetz-Boumeester Museum in Villefranche-sur-Mer on the Côte d'Azur, as well as in 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.