Xavier Gonzalez

Who was Xavier Gonzalez?

Xavier Gonzalez was a Spanish American artist. He was born in Almeria, Spain. He lived in Argentina and Mexico for some time, planning to become an engineer in a gold mine. In 1925, he immigrated to the United States.

Gonzalez began his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1921 to 1923, and his uncle, José Arpa, studied with him there. He also studied at the San Carlos Academy in Mexico City, as well as in Paris and the Far East. In 1931, Gonzalez became a US citizen, In in 1935 he married fellow artist Ethel Edwards who was a student of Gonzales at Newcomb College. Gonzales commandeered the canteen wall at Newcomb for the use of his art students.

Gonzalez's works have been displayed throughout the United States including at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as in Paris, Venice, Brussels and Tokyo. He taught art at Tulane University, the Brooklyn Museum, Case Western Reserve University, and the Newcomb Memorial School of Art, and was the director of the art school at Sul Ross State Teachers College, in Alpine, Texas.

Gonzalez died of leukemia in 1993, at the age of 94, at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, New York City.