Cuban-born mid-century furniture maker and interior designer Clara Porset is having a moment in museums such as New York’s Museum of Modern Art and beyond, with attention being paid not just to her designs for chairs, lamps and tables but to her life story, with its ties to feminism, modernization and the identification of value in indigenous materials and methods.
Born into a wealthy Cuban family, Porset studied at Columbia University, the Sorbonne and Black Mountain College in North Carolina, which she attended at the urging of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius and where her teachers included Josef and Anni Albers.
A critic of Cuba’s right-wing government, she left her home country for Mexico, with its more simpatico regime, in 1935. With her Mexican husband, painter Xavier Guerrero, she threw herself into studying that country’s design traditions, and together the two were winners of MoMA’s Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition in 1941. (Porset was unfortunately not recognized at the time for her contribution but has since been credited alongside her husband for the entry.)
Like Porset, other designers of the mid-century era such as Cynthia Sargent, Don Shoemaker and the Bauhaus-trained architect Michael van Beuren who had relocated to Mexico found inspiration in their adopted country. Klaus Grabe, Morley Webb and van Beuren were also named among the Mexico-based winners of MoMA’s 1941 competition. (And van Beuren's furniture brand Domus produced Porset's designs in addition to his own.)
Fascinated by a Spanish-inflected Mexican wood-and-wicker chair called the butaque, Porset developed her own version by tweaking proportions and incorporating new materials.
According to art critic and curator Ana Elena Mallet, its design was “a manifestation of her profound engagement with Mexican craft traditions” at a time when “discussions surrounding the definition of Mexican identity were paramount within the larger political landscape.” In this view, “Porset’s Butaque becomes not merely a chair but a tangible expression of the socio-political discourse of its time,” she says. Or, as Paola Antonelli, MoMA’s senior curator of architecture and design, told the New York Times, “This is the Latin American chair.”
Porset designed many other chairs, some in collaboration with the preeminent Mexican architect Luis Barragán. She returned to Cuba in 1959, after Fidel Castro came to power, with high hopes, but when her plans to start a design school (under Che Guevara, Castro’s minister of industries from 1961 to 1965) foundered, she returned to Mexico, where she continued to promote design for the rest of her life.
Find vintage Clara Porset furniture for sale on 1stDibs.
Clara Porset Style Muebles Austin Lounge Chair
By Clara Porset
Located in Austin, TX
Knock-down lounge chair with arms in solid carved pine with a woven plasticized palm seat and back, in the manner of Clara Porset, produced by Muebles Austin of Mexico City, 1950’s. ...
Cord, Pine
Price Upon Request
Butaque Armchairs by Clara Porset, Oak & Leather, Mexico, c1947
By Clara Porset
Located in San Francisco, CA
Large frame 'Butaque' oak armchairs upholstered in heavy tan leather with a rich, time-earned patina. The restored frames highlight the warmth of the wood, while the later-added bras...
Brass
$4,639 / item
H 31.5 in W 24.5 in D 29 in
Clara Porset's Mexican Butaque Chair, licensed reedition by Luteca
By Clara Porset, Luteca Furniture
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Cuban-born Clara Porset was a pioneer for modern design in Mexico. Having studied architecture in New York and then Paris, she finally settled in Mexico devoting her life to championing her mutually enriching vision of modernity and tradition. A fierce proponent of historical craft traditions, Clara Porset created wholly contemporary versions of the classic Mexican vernacular forms including the colonial butaque chair...
Hide, Maple
Clara Porset Rare Lounge Chairs, 1950's
By Clara Porset
Located in Uccle, BE
Clara Porset (1895-1981) - Xavier Guerrero (1896-1974) Pair of armchairs Rope and lacquered metal Model created circa 1950 Measures: H: 79 x W 70 x D 69 cm This chair model is part of the selection of the 1950 international low-cost furniture...
Metal
$11,937
H 38.98 in W 25.6 in D 19.69 in
Wingback Armchairs by Eva Koppel for Slagelse Møbelværk, Denmark, 1947
By Slagelse Mobelvaerk, Eva & Niels Koppel
Located in Paris, IDF
Important and rare wingback armchair designed by Eva Koppel in 1947 and manufactured at Slagelse Møbelværk, Denmark. Made from dark stained beech original yellow fabric Good condi...
Wool, Beech
Finn Juhl Grasshopper Oak Wood and Leather Armchair
By Finn Juhl
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Armchair designed by Finn Juhl in 1938, relaunched in 2019. Manufactured by House of Finn Juhl in Denmark. The Grasshopper was designed by Finn Juhl in 1938 and exhibited at Niels V...
Leather, Wood
Clara Porset Style Sling Chair
By Clara Porset
Located in Brooklyn, NY
A mid-century sling chair with a black lacquered base and newly upholstered leather seat in the style of the trailblazing Cuban-born furniture and interior designer Clara Porset.
Leather, Wood, Lacquer
$1,400Sale Price|20% Off
H 32.5 in W 27.25 in D 23 in
Spanish Colonial Leather Wood Chair Miguelito Butaque 1940s
By Clara Porset
Located in Chula Vista, CA
For your consideration, a Vintage Mexican Leather Colonial Wood Chair Style Miguelito Butaque, Mexico circa the 1940s . In the style of Miguelito But...
Leather, Wood
Pair of Gainsborough Style Lounge Chairs
Located in Vosselaar, BE
As we found a small but amazing batch of root walnut we decided to make a pair of chairs suitable for this rare woodspecies. Our choice of style was a classic high quality Gainsborou...
Walnut
Clara Porset Lounge Chairs
By Clara Porset
Located in Danville, CA
Pair of iconic arm lounge chairs by Clara Porset from an architect, really significant building designed by Ricardo Legarreta architect located in Emeryville, California.
Oak
Armchair by Rene Gabriel, 1947
By Rene Gabriel
Located in Saint Ouen, France
Armchair by Rene Gabriel, 1947 "Salon des artistes décorateurs", 1946. Medium-priced series of furniture published by Lieuvin in light ceruse oak. See page 257, "René Gabriel" Nor...
Beech
$4,809
H 37.8 in W 27.96 in D 31.5 in
Pair of Italian 'Senior Chairs' / Lounge Chairs, Marco Zanuso Style, 1950s
By Arflex, Marco Zanuso
Located in Argelato, BO
Extraordinary pair of Italian "Senior" armchairs, in the style of the great architect and designer Marco Zanuso. These armchairs / lounge chairs have high backs and are modern wing back chairs...
Brass
Butaque Sofa by Clara Porset
By Clara Porset
Located in Danville, CA
Clara Porset Butaque sofa from an important architectural masterpiece designed by Ricardo Legarreta in Emeryville California. Part of a reception ...
Oak
French Cerused Lounge Chairs style of Jean Michel Frank
Located in New York, NY
chairs.
PVC, Oak
$4,795 / item
H 31.5 in W 26 in D 37.5 in
Clara Porset's Mexican Walnut & Hemp Butaque Chair, licensed reedition by Luteca
By Clara Porset, Luteca Furniture
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Cuban-born Clara Porset was a pioneer for modern design in Mexico. Having studied architecture in New York and then Paris, she finally settled in Mexico devoting her life to champion...
Walnut, Hemp
Petite Mexican Butaque
By Clara Porset
Located in Mexico City, CDMX
Circa 1950. We offer this Petite Mexican Butaquein the atyle of Clara Porset in original conditions, we offer the restautration service by our team of professionals.
Wood
Muebles Diaz, Lounge Chair, Wood, Fabric, Argentina, 1960s
Located in High Point, NC
A wood, black cotton and green fabric lounge chair or scissor chair produced by Muebles Diaz, Argentina, c. 1960s. Wear consistent with age and use. Reupholstered. Overall Dimensio...
Fabric, Wood
Clara Porset Butaque Lounge Chair, Cypress & Leather, Mexico, 1940s
By Clara Porset
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Clara Porset 'Butaque' lounge chair c.1940s, Mexico. The lounge chair features a curvaceous solid cypress wood frame with the original brown saddle leather sling seat. The leather is...
Leather, Cypress
Clara Porset 'Butaque' Lounge Chair - II
By Clara Porset
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Clara Porset 'Butaque' lounge chair c.1940s, Mexico. The lounge chair features a curvaceous solid cypress wood frame with the original brown saddle leather sling seat. The leather is...
Leather, Cypress
Clara Porset 'Butaque' Lounge Chair - I
By Clara Porset
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Clara Porset 'Butaque' lounge chair c.1940s, Mexico. The lounge chair features a curvaceous solid cypress wood frame with the original brown saddle leather sling seat. The leather is...
Leather, Cypress
Clara Porset 'Butaque' Lounge Chair
By Clara Porset
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Clara Porset 'Butaque' lounge chair c.1940s, Mexico. The lounge chair features a curvaceous solid cypress wood frame with the original brown saddle leather sling seat. The leather is...
Steel
Clara Porset Lounge Chairs
By Clara Porset
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Rare form from Cuban-born designer, Clara Porset. Woven rush seat and back on wood frame.
Cord, Wood