Xavier Gonzales

Spanish, 1898–1993

Gonzalez was born in Almeria, Spain, and lived with his family in Mexico and Argentina. He moved to the U.S. in 1925, attending classes at the Art Institute in Chicago while working a series of odd jobs. He taught art in Texas public schools before joining the faculty at Newcomb College in New Orleans, where he taught painting. Gonzalez worked on many mural projects for the Works Progress Administration's Treasury Section of Paintings and Sculpture during the Depression and later worked for the U.S. Army and Navy Education Department.

During the 1930s, Gonzalez also operated an artists' colony in Alpine, Texas (about 30 miles from the present-day artists' colony in Marfa), with his wife, Ethel Edwards, also a painter. Gonzalez traveled widely through France, Italy, Egypt, Hong Kong, Japan, and Greece. He befriended Pablo Picasso and Gertrude Stein in Paris. Gonzalez moved to New York City following World War II, teaching at the National Academy of Design in New York until 1976.