Pedro Friedeberg, key figure in Mexican art renowned for hand-shaped chair, has died at age 90

The Mexico-based artist and designer Pedro Friedeberg, finest identified for his hand-shaped chair, Mano Silla (1962), died on 5 March at age 90 in San Miguel de Allende. Along with his well-known design and a cynical, at occasions eccentric persona, Friedeberg’s life and profession made him a key determine in Mexican Twentieth-century artwork.

Born in Florence, in 1936, Friedeberg’s German Jewish household moved to Mexico when he was three years outdated to flee the Second World Struggle. As a toddler he was concerned about geometry and perspective, each of which grew to become central to his work as an artist. “Even after 60 years, I’m nonetheless in love with perspective,” he mentioned in a 2014 interview. “One-point, two-point, three-point, false perspective, metaphysical perspective… there are about 25 forms of perspective, proper?”

Whereas finding out structure at Mexico Metropolis’s Universidad Iberoamericana, Friedeberg met the German artist Mathias Goeritz, a instructor on the time who has been credited with introducing a lot of the European vanguard to Mexico within the Nineteen Fifties. Goeritz grew to become a mentor and, as Friedeberg mentioned within the 2022 documentary Pedro, “a fatherly determine”. The artwork historian Ida Rodríguez Prampolini was additionally a key affect on his profession.

A singular universe

Although Friedeberg got here of age at a time of experimentation in Mexico, the affect of Muralism persevered and Surrealism, primarily represented by Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington, additionally loomed massive. Even so, he set his personal path past Minimalism and geometric abstraction, utilizing decoration as his compass. Usually referred to as “the final Surrealist artist”, his signature intricate, fantastical architectural scenes nonetheless elude tidy labels.

“Drawing on classical traditions whereas criticising Western society, he created an atemporal language that avoids interpretation via kinds or avant-garde conventions,” says David Miranda, the curator of Salón de los Astrólogos Homeopáticos (2021), which featured Friedeberg and Goeritz’s work at Museo Experimental El Eco. Friedeberg’s perception-altering scenes and use of on a regular basis imagery tangentially join him with Op and Pop artwork. “He belongs to all and none of those actions,” wrote James Oles, the curator of Friedeberg’s first retrospective, Pedro Friedeberg: arquitecto de confusiones impecables on the Palacio de Bellas Artes (2009-10), within the exhibition catalogue.

In 1959, at age 23, because of Varo and Goeritz, Friedeberg held his first exhibition at Galería Diana; quickly after he started exhibiting internationally. “From then till 2026, his follow was huge and steady, in contrast to nearly some other artist of his technology,” Miranda says.

Friedeberg additionally challenged the established order. In 1961, alongside Chucho Reyes, Alice Rahon, Rodríguez Prampolini, José Luis Cuevas and Goeritz, he based Los Hartos. “The group manifested itself in opposition to the exhaustion of contemporary artwork, proposing new classes for creative follow,” Miranda says.

Past Mano Silla

In 1962, he created the wood hand-shaped Mano Silla, which rapidly grew to become a broadly reproduced, copied and plagiarised design. In his deadpan type, Friedeberg, for whom the hand was a recurring motif, typically dismissed the piece: “It doesn’t have any that means,” he mentioned within the documentary Pedro. “I made it, it was profitable and I repeated it 17,500 occasions, however I’m now fed up.” Oles says: “There’s a brilliance within the hand chair that’s usually neglected due to its large copy.” It was this chair that prompted André Breton to ask Friedeberg to affix the Surrealist group.

“Particularly the work created within the Nineteen Sixties and 70s are key to understanding Friedeberg’s mental complexity, self-discipline, drawing mastery and creativity,” Oles says. “Behind his cynicism lies a profound and dense follow, which we made an effort to hint after we organised his first retrospective.” One in every of these earlier works, The Gioconda Palace Throughout Mona Lisa Week (1963), is now a part of the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo’s (Muac) assortment. Alongside the picture’s conceptual depth, symbolism and precision, the piece’s title displays Friedeberg’s ironic and humorous strategy to language. One other key work is a mural he made at Mexico Metropolis’s Camino Actual Lodge within the late Nineteen Sixties. Although it has since been altered, it presents an immersive architectural format by which perspective turns into the protagonist.

Friedeberg experimented regularly throughout completely different initiatives and media. Within the late Nineteen Seventies, with fellow artist Xavier Girón, he created a short-lived, 12-sq.-m gallery referred to as La Chinche, which playfully challenged standard exhibition practices. A lot of Friedeberg’s later work centered on prints. “Commercialisation in some way obscures the complexity of some of the unbelievable artists and minds of Mexican artwork within the Twentieth century,” Oles says.

“Friedeberg’s creative richness spans greater than seven a long time,” says Carla García, the curator of Ciudad Épsilon on the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Querétaro (2025-26), which centered on his three-dimensional works. “He at all times sought to make artwork a part of every day life, free from strict intellectualism, erudite exclusivity and even good style.”

“Friedeberg’s work has been described as Surrealist, kitsch, and iconoclastic, usually in contrast with Edward James and Leonora Carrington,” Miranda said. “But the continuity of his imaginative and prescient allowed him to maneuver throughout artwork, structure, and design with out compromising poetic substance.”

In 2012, Friedeberg was awarded Mexico’s Medal of Effective Arts. He remained energetic till very not too long ago. The Fundación Friedeberg, which now manages the artist’s property, is predicted to supervise forthcoming exhibitions of his work.

“I hope someday we are able to rediscover Friedeberg, particularly his earlier works,” Oles says. “He was probably the most authentic, sui generis and instantly identifiable artist of his technology.”