Mathias Goeritz was a German-born Mexican sculptor. He is best known for his interest in what he called “emotional architecture,” which was a belief in objects that elicited an emotional response rather than objects purely for functionality. Goeritz’s public sculptures were often large-scale and inspired by prehistoric cave paintings and monoliths. Born on April 4, 1915 in Danzig, Germany (now Gdansk, Poland), the artist grew up in Berlin. He went on to study philosophy and the history of art at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn, while also studying art under Max Kaus and Hans Orlowski at the Berlin-Charlottenberg School of Arts and Crafts. Goeritz left Germany in 1941 to escape World War II, first settling in Morocco, then Spain, and then in Mexico, where he worked as a teacher. During the 1950s, the artist worked with the architect Luis Barragán to produce massive, abstract concrete sculptures, and Goeritz first presented his “Manifiesto de la Arquitectura Emocional” (“Emotional Architecture Manifesto”). Goeritz’s works are in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, among others. He died on August 4, 1990 in Mexico City, Mexico.