Xavier Gonzalez Sterling Eye Necklace

Xavier Gonzalez

Xavier Gonzalez, a painter and sculptor who taught at the Art Students League for several years, died on Saturday at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx. He was 94 and lived in Manhattan and Wellfleet, Mass.

He died of leukemia, said his wife, Ethel Edwards, a painter.

Mr. Gonzalez was born in Almeria, Spain. When he was 8, his family moved to Mexico, where he studied art and mechanical engineering. After moving to the United States as a young man, he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, supporting himself by designing display signs at the Carson Pirie Scott department store.

Known for his versatility, Mr. Gonzalez painted and made sculpture in several styles, both figurative and abstract. He also executed a number of painted murals and a few carved stone reliefs as public commissions. Among them was “The History of Man,” an abstract relief executed in 1963 for the lobby of David B. Steinman Hall on the uptown campus of City College.

Before going to the Art Students League in 1976, Mr. Gonzalez taught at Tulane University, the Brooklyn Museum and Case Western Reserve University. He had his first one-man show in New York City at the Grand Central Galleries in the late 1950’s. His sculpture was shown at the Century Association last fall. His work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by two sisters, Concha Gonzalez Navarro of Mexico City and Encarnacion Gonzalez Arpa of California.