Pedro Friedeberg
Golden hands
2021

About the Item

Pedro Friedeberg is an artist and designer from Mexico of Italian origin, known for his surreal work full of lines, colors, and ancient religious symbols. His best-known piece is the “ManoChair”: a sculpture/chair designed to sit on the palm, using the fingers as backrests and armrests. Friedeberg began to study architecture but did not finish his studies. He began to produce designs that went against the conventional forms of the 1950s, some as incredible as houses with artichoke roofs. His work caught the attention of Mathías Goeritz who encouraged him to continue his career as an artist. Friedeberg became part of a group of Mexican surrealist artists, including Leonora Carrington and Alicia Rahon, noted for their irreverence, rejecting the social and political art that was dominant at the time. Friedeberg has gained a reputation as an eccentric and claims that art is dead because nothing new has been produced.

Creator:
Pedro Friedeberg (1936, Mexican)
Creation Year:
2021
Dimensions:
Height: 33.46 in (84.99 cm)Width: 33.46 in (84.99 cm)
Medium:
Paper,Screen,Cotton,Gold Leaf
Movement & Style:
Surrealist
Period:
20th Century
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Ciudad de México, MX
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU2072211238912
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Pedro Friedeberg

The sculptor and painter Pedro Friedeberg works in a richly detailed, Surrealist and eccentric artistic style that blends influences from neoclassical art, M.C. Escher and native Mesoamerican symbolism. He is best known for his Hand chair — a functional sculpture that is an icon of design-as-art.

Friedeberg was born in Florence to German parents and moved with his mother to Mexico at the outset of World War II. As a university student in Mexico City in the 1950s, he initially studied architecture, but his designs for fantastical buildings ran afoul of his rationalist, Bauhaus-oriented teachers.

By chance, Friedeberg’s drawings came to the attention of Mathias Goeritz, the German-born Dadaist painter and sculptor. He encouraged Friedeberg and made him a protégé. Friedeberg credits his mentor for instilling in him a fanatical attention to detail in his work. Friedeberg produced his first Hand chair in 1961, and has since created numerous iterations. He has also made several variants using other human limbs in different functional forms such as tables and clocks.

While Friedeberg’s sculptures have a gentle character that is sometimes described as spiritual, his paintings and prints are something entirely different. He employs deep perspective to create hypnotic, painstakingly rendered canvases that suggest rooms and cityscapes.

Whatever the medium, Friedeberg’s work is arresting and instantly recognizable. The Hand chair, though familiar, remains a captivating piece — both furniture and artwork — that stands apart in any interior. Examples are often priced between $20,000 and $30,000, depending on formal variations (such as a foot-shaped pedestal), material and condition. Smaller functional items such as tabletop clocks bring about $9,000. His paintings and drawings require space; they are meant to be contemplated. Prices on original examples start at about $30,000; prints generally sell in the region of $900.

As you will see on 1stDibs, the art and design of Pedro Friedeberg is singular and memorable.