Original Artist Proof by Pedro Friedeberg, "Steps of Nobility"

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Original Artist Proof by Pedro Friedeberg, "Steps of Nobility"

About the Item

Framed professionally in a zebra wood frame shadow box. Mexico City-based Friedeberg, along with Frida Kahlo, were the only two Mexican artists recognized by Andre Breton as part of the Surrealist movement. That makes Friedeberg the last of the Mexican Surrealists. Pedro Friedeberg was born in Florence, Italy, 1936, to German-Jewish parents, He arrived in Mexico at the age of three. Having shown an early inclination for drawing and sculpture architecture Universidad Iberoamericana, where he was profoundly influenced by the teaching of Mathias Goeritz, a German-Mexican artist. Friedeberg became part of a group of surrealist artists in Mexico which included Leonora Carrington and Alice Rahon, who were irreverent, rejecting the social and political art which was dominant at the time He Created the famous hand chair He also liked the perspectives of the drawings of M. C. Escher In his autobiography, Friedeberg writes about experiences with his many friends in the art world, including Salvador Dalí, Leonora Carrington, Kati Horna, Tamara De Lempicka, Mathias Goeritz, Gunther Gerszo, Edward James, Zachary Selig and Bridget Bate Tichenor. His works can be found in the permanent collections of the Museo de Arte Moderno, the José Luis Cuevas Museum, the Televisa Cultural Center, all in Mexico City, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Toluca, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Culiacán, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Pátzcuaro, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art in New Orleans, the Library of Congress in Washington DC, the Rose Art Museum of Brandeis University in Boston, the National Research Library in Ottawa, Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the National Museum of Modern Art in Baghdad, the Ponce Museum of Art in Puerto Rico, the Franklin Rawson Museum in Argentina, the Omar Rayo Museum in Colombia and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC., The Museum of Arts and Design in New York In 1960, Friedeberg was invited to join a group based on Dada principles: the creation of anti-art for art's sake. Los Hartos (The Fed Up). His body of work, along with Friedeberg's obsessively crowded and meticulously detailed canvases, often included references to Tantric scriptures, Aztec codices, Catholicism, Hinduism and symbols of the Kabbalah and Judaism.

Creator:
Pedro Friedeberg (Artist)
Dimensions:
Height: 33 in (83.82 cm)Width: 33 in (83.82 cm)Depth: 3.25 in (8.26 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Glass,Paper,Zebra Wood
Place of Origin:
Mexico
Period:
Late 20th Century
Date of Manufacture:
20th Century
Condition:
Seller Location:
East Hampton, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU83284943023

Shop All Pedro Friedeberg

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.