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Lot Essay
The present work from 1940, is one of a series of strongly geometrical mask studies that Gonzlez based on an abstracted rearrangement of the proportions of the features of his own face.
When Hans Hartung came to live with the Gonzlez family at Arcueil in 1937 it was the first time since Gonzlez's brother Joan's death in 1908 that there had been another man in the Gonzlez household. Gonzlez greatly welcomed the companionship of the young German painter and one of the consequences of Hartung's presence - other than his marriage to Roberta - was that his aesthetic as a non-objective artist provoked many friendly but sometimes heated discussions between the two artists. Hartung's friend, Henri Goetz, who became a frequent visitor during this time, has recalled that although Gonzlez was not generally given to theoretical debate, he was passionate in his defence against pure abstraction, always insisting that some reference to nature be maintained.
Hartung recalled that as part of these arguments, Gonzlez often referred to mathematical proportional systems which Hartung found to be both elaborate and confusing. Hartung maintained that many of Gonzlez's late drawings such as the present work, made explicit use of such complex systems that the manifest strength of their design has its origins in such numerical ratios. Frustratingly, the reminiscences of Hartung and Goetz and the remarkable geometry of works such as Masque are all that is known of the systems Gonzlez was proported to have used.
When Hans Hartung came to live with the Gonzlez family at Arcueil in 1937 it was the first time since Gonzlez's brother Joan's death in 1908 that there had been another man in the Gonzlez household. Gonzlez greatly welcomed the companionship of the young German painter and one of the consequences of Hartung's presence - other than his marriage to Roberta - was that his aesthetic as a non-objective artist provoked many friendly but sometimes heated discussions between the two artists. Hartung's friend, Henri Goetz, who became a frequent visitor during this time, has recalled that although Gonzlez was not generally given to theoretical debate, he was passionate in his defence against pure abstraction, always insisting that some reference to nature be maintained.
Hartung recalled that as part of these arguments, Gonzlez often referred to mathematical proportional systems which Hartung found to be both elaborate and confusing. Hartung maintained that many of Gonzlez's late drawings such as the present work, made explicit use of such complex systems that the manifest strength of their design has its origins in such numerical ratios. Frustratingly, the reminiscences of Hartung and Goetz and the remarkable geometry of works such as Masque are all that is known of the systems Gonzlez was proported to have used.