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DiggPedro Friedeberg 2008
January 17, 2008- March 31, 2008
Reception: January 17, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Pedro Friedeberg
Sebastian + Barquet
544 W 24th St Pedro Friedeberg Silla Mariposa chair (1983) |
A son of German-Jewish parents, Pedro Friedeberg was born in Florence, Italy in 1937. Escaping fascism, his mother took him to Mexico where he arrived at the age of three. He studied architecture at the Universidad Iberoamericana where he met Mathias Goeritz, a German-Mexican artist who became a decisive influence in his work. In the 1960s Friedeberg began producing furniture and architectural models that fused diverse stylistic sources into unique structures or pieces that deliberately attempted to avoid functionality.
This exhibition showcases the artist’s furniture inspired by what he called “anti-art for art’s sake”, a reaction to the highly functional International Style of the fifties and a reflection of his empathy with Dadaism of the earlier part of the century. Under the name of “Los Hartos” (the Fed Up), Friedeberg and a group of young artists led by Mathias Goeritz, tried to reclaim a place for aestheticism and pure form away from functionality. The result is a stunning series of pieces influenced by the artist’s interest in European early Renaissance, Mexican folk art and the Surrealists’ precepts.
The show also includes several of his paintings filled with architectural details and references to Tantric Scriptures, Aztec Codices and religious symbols. His canvases overflow with surprise and fantastic realism and are not easily definable in terms of conventional categories. The sense of irony and excess he conveys in his work through the repetition of elements and the juxtaposition of styles and symbols, reminds one of Surrealism; however, his work is more deliberate and sarcastic, in his own words: “My work is maybe more decorative. The surrealists were more into profound dreaming, into the absurdity of things. But I think my work is also criticizing the absurdity of things.”
Among the pieces in the exhibition is the “Hand chair,” a staple in the 20th Century Design.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show
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