Henri Goetz (1909-1989)

Henri Goetz was born in 1909 in New York, his family of French and American origin. He studied at Harvard University and the Grand Central Art School before moving to Paris in 1930 where he continued his studies at the Académies Julian and Ozenfant in Montparnasse. Goetz took a studio next to Victor Brauner, and through him became involved with the Surrealist group. Under their influence, Goetz moved away from figurative realism and began to include aspects of the ephemeral, illogical and subconscious into his fantastical landscapes. Described by Salvador Dali as 'a painter of the infinitesimal and the infinite', Goetz' landscapes from this period have much in common with those of Yves Tanguy, and suggest a pre-human existence of organic forms and biomorphic shapes.

He exhibited at the Salon des Surindépendants for the first time in 1935, and in the same year married the Dutch painter Christine Boumeester (1904-1971). In 1937, Goetz held a one man show at the Galerie Van Leer, Paris, before fighting in the Resistance movement alongside Boumeester during the Second World War. The artist gained increasing critical acclaim during the post-war period, although his work became less Surreal in character.