Pedro Friedeberg

At the Camino Real Hotel in Mexico city there is a mural by this Mexican artist (born in Italy, he escaped Mussolini with his mother when he was a child), that always fascinated me when I was a little girl. It was kinda of psychedelic but very geometric. Fun and gorgeous. Super extra groovy. Friedeberg was mostly known for the invention of this:

 

The hand chair, which according to the current retrospective of his art at Bellas Artes, was coveted by hip seventies icons such as Yul Brynner and Roman Polanski. Friedeberg was not only a late surrealist but a mischievous wit and he said (and I paraphrase) that it was amazing to him that he became famous for a lazy, vulgar piece of work that was actually built by a carpenter, but his other work which consumed hours of his time, nobody paid any mind to. Well, here is some of it:

 

 

Project for the Remodeling of Toluca (he originally studied architecture)

 

This one is called Vagina Dentata

And these are his interpretations of the Kabbalah tree. 

As you can see, he combines esoteric influences with op art and surrealism. Back in the day when there was no Adobe Illustrator. The titles of his works are very funny.

 

 

He was much a product of his time, but I think his art is still extremely cool today. 

The guy is still around and looks like he's having fun.