Biography

Henri Goetz painter and engraver born in New York in 1909, of French and American origin.

After studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at Boston (University of Havard) he moved to Paris in 1930. he attended mainly the Montparnasse and Ozenfant Academies and began to form friendships with the surrealist painters.

In 1935 he married the painter Christine Boumeester. From 1936 onwards, wishing to become an abstract painter, he began to create a world of forms and shapes that owed nothing to reality and in a space which opens itself to the interior.
He exhibited at the Salon des Surindépendants and had his first individual exhibitions at the “Galerie Bonaparte” in Paris in 1937

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Henri Goetz met ANDRE BRETON in 1938 who baptised his colour reproductions “ Corrected Masterpieces”: these were works of past artist which Goetz had painted on, with the aim of collaborating with them in order to produce collective posthumous works.

In 1940, with Dotremont and Ubac he created “The Pen In Hand” the first realist review to be published during the war.
1940: Exhibition with Christine Boumeester at the “Galerie Jeanne Bucher”.

Obliged to leave Paris because of his American, citizenship and his activity in the the resitance, he took refuge in Nice.
There he joined STAEL, ARP, MAGNELLI, PICABIA and the other surrealist artists. It was thanks to the materials that BONNARD lent him that GOETZ was able to realise his lithographies “Explorations” with the poems of  PICABIA. Returning to Paris after the end of the war he took the first steps to reopening the “Salon des Indépendants”.

In 1947 Alain RESNAIS dedicated his first film to GOETZ. From then onwards, numerous exhibitions dedicated to his works were held in various countries. Henri GOETZ lead painting courses at Ranson, La Grande Chaumière, Notre-Dame-Des-Champs, Raspail, Frochot and Malebranche Academies.

In 1965 he founded the «Academie Goetz » on the premises of the old “ Academie André Lhote”. He has been directing art courses for three years at the “ Conservatoire Américain de Fontainebleau”