Biography

Gordon Goetemann was a painter that lived in Gloucester Massachusetts with his artist wife, Judith. Together they operated an art gallery on Rocky Neck.  Gordon considered himself an artist who fit into the tradition of American romantic-realism. His subject matter was nearly exclusively landscape made not only for its beauty but also as a metaphor for the spiritual dimensions of life. In later years, these dimensions moved his work further into abstraction. Along with this he also painted responses to music by such composers as Debussy and Gustaf Mahler. 

 Gordon earned a BFA degree from the University of Notre Dame and a MFA degree from the State University of Iowa. His course work was divided about equally between studio arts and art history. During the summer of his junior year at Notre Dame he came to Gloucester to study with Umberto Romano. It was there that he and Judith met. Five years later they were married and Gordon began a teaching career working with Benedictine nuns and monks in central Minnesota. As a professor, Gordon’s wide interests in the humanities and the studio arts were evident.  He liked teaching painting and his signature course "Mind of the Artist” to students at the same time. The course presented a history of visual form with a particular focus on the individualized choices artists made which characterized their unique styles.

His own work is influenced by these interests. They account for the range from realism to abstraction that one sees in a body of his work and for his ability to use freely the structural reserve of classical thought and the dynamic exuberance of romantic expression. 

Gordon does not think of art as a commodity and has not sought directly commercial success. Mostly, he exhibited in college and university galleries as well as in his own which he saw more as a learning space than a marketplace. Nonetheless, he has achieved a modicum of success judged by worldly standards.  His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions at the Universities of: Massachusetts(Amherst), Notre Dame (IN), State University of Iowa, St. Johns (MN), St.Paul Museum (MN) and the Walker Art Center (MN).  Colleges : Carlton (MN), Clark (IA), Mundelein( IL) and St.Benedict ( MN). His work has been accessioned into the collections of the Aldrich Museum of American Art, Cape Ann Historical Museum, and Corporate Collections such as: Bain & Co.,Citicorp, First Bank Systems, John Handcock Insurance Corp. and the IBM Corp.