Mathias Goeritz
(Gdansk, Poland, 1915-Mexico City, 1990)

 

A German-born Mexican architect, sculptor, painter, and art historian, Mathias Goeritz is considered a key figure in the development of modern art in postwar Latin America.
Goeritz emigrated to Mexico in 1949 after securing a position as an Art History professor at the newly founded School of Architecture in Guadalajara. In collaboration with Luis Barragán, he co-designed the famous Torres de Satélite in 1958, one of the most recognizable symbols of Mexican modernity. He also conceived La Ruta de la Amistad for the 1968 Olympic Games and, in 1953, built the Museo Experimental El Eco as an embodiment of his manifesto on “emotional architecture.” As a sculptor, some of his most notable works include Animal Herido, Torso (designed specifi cally for El Eco), and Las Torres, the emblem of UNAM’s Faculty of Higher Studies–Aragón.
The Torres de Satélite, a collaboration between Mathias Goeritz and Luis Barragán, remains an iconic landmark of Ciudad Satélite and the municipality of Naucalpan.