continued from part # 3

American designer William Spratling frequented prominent artists and personalities that were active within the Mexicanismo movement during that time, and many of them decorated their homes with his furniture. As a result of William Spratling’s furniture designs success, the Butaque fever started in Mexico, and following the saying of silversmiths “the tin is the poor man´s silver”, in the 1940′s Clara Porset decided to introduce industrial low-cost series of butaques with only minimal changes to Spratling’s designs produced since the early 1930′s at his Taller de las Delicias. The conflict between Spratling and Porset became well known, and as a consequence, they never talked to each other again. Porset also approppriated an old art-crafted typical caned butaque of Veracruz and the famous Miguelito armchair from Jalisco, of course in cheap woods like pine, etc. Someone coined the saying: “A Porset is the poor man’s Spratling butaque”.

Now we will witness how the fever of the butaque chair was propagated:

Everybody knew each other in the Mexican architectural and design world and one thing lead to another: Clara Porset collaborated on many projects with prominent Mexican architect Luis Barragán and by the mid 1940’s Barragán presented “La Butaca” designs in his furnishing proposals. At this moment the butaque fever reached its peak and the cloning virus was more vicious than ever; please check on the pictures of the typical Jalisco Miguelito chairs and the identical butaques produced by Barragán and Clara Porset; miraculously, one particular chair created by Clara Porset for Barragán looks identical to the caned Butaque chairs from Veracruz from the early 20th Century. (See my posts: Mexican Modernism – Furniture Design in Mexico – Part #1 & Part #5 + ¿What is the difference between a Mexican Campeche Chair and a Butaque? – Part #2)

I would like to remark however, that some of Luis Barragan’s and Clara Porset’s dining room chairs remind me of William Spratling’s designs as well, but we will talk about those appropriations in future posts.

I also have to mention Mexican architect and urban planner Juan Sordo Madaleno, active during that same period of time. Architecturally, he settled initially by the Bauhaus style and influence of Le Corbusier. Notable examples of Sordo Madaleno’s work are his own house (1952), the Cinema Paris (1954), with its surprising structure and composition, and the Seguros Anáhuac Building (1958). He significantly influenced the design of hotels in Mexico and he was among the pioneers to introduce a new type of large-scale commercial center, such as the Plaza Satélite (1971) in Mexico City. Juan Sordo Madaleno collaborated with Luis Barragán, Serrano and Ricardo Legorreta, among others, and he worked with Clara Porset on several projects like the Club Campestre Churubusco in Mexico City.

Here are some interior views of Sordo Madaleno’s house in Mexico City, including Butaca chair models designed by him – very similar to those presented by Luis Barragán and Clara Porset:

to be continued in part # 5

Copyright © 2010 – 2013 Karin Goyer. All Rights Reserved.

@donshoemaker.com

Hectór Aguilar began his career as the shop manager for William Spratling’s Taller de las Delicias in 1936. Aguilar then left Las Delicias in 1939 taking a number of silversmiths with him to found the Taller Borda, with the financial support from his wife and several friends. By 1948 he formed a new company, Talleres Borda, S.A. de C.V. which quickly became one of the premier retailer silver outlets in Taxco. Taller Borda sold a full line of sterling jewelry, hollowware, flatware and furniture pieces, all produced at the Aguilar workshops. The firm prospered for many years until its closure in 1966. Below I have included some butaca armchairs produced by the Héctor Aguilar workshops:

Another outstanding Mexican artisan and designer who started his career in Taxco, at Casa Grande, is Antonio Frausto. He became famous for his highly successful Mexican Colonial designs made in juniper, pine and exotic wood species from the state of Guerrero. Frausto designed complete furniture sets for the interiors of Mexican Modernism architects Luis Barragán, Francisco Artigas and Max Cetto, just to name a few. His emblematic Mexican Colonial furniture pieces can be found at Haciendas and Ranches of Mexican Presidents, politicians, celebrities and wealthy businessmen; even today, you may recognize Don Antonio’s furniture designs at prestigious Mexican Colonial hotels and restaurants. His workshop, Artesanos de México, S.A. produced furniture lines including all sorts of cabinets with attractive ironworks, office furniture, dining and living room sets, bedrooms, chairs, tables and benches. My favorites, Don Antonio´s “bargueños” are without a doubt his personal trademark, but these will be described in another post dedicated to furniture from the “Mexicanismo” movement.
Since the 1950’s Don Antonio’s workshop produced a complete variety of “butacas” in juniper wood and “vaqueta” leather. Regrettably, his furniture production does not carry any label or signature; his creations are very often mistaken for designs attributed to William Spratling, Francisco Artigas, Luis Barragán or even Clara Porset.

to be continued in part # 4
Copyright © 2010 – 2013 Karin Goyer. All Rights Reserved.
@donshoemaker.com

By the turn of the 18^th Century a great number of marquetry furniture was being made throughout Mexico, geometric figures and vegetable forms being the most characteristic motifs. Diverse woods of the various regions were used: balsam, Mexican cherry, mahogany, maple, cedar, orangewood, lemonwood, sapote, pine, mulberry, palisander, granadilla and poplar, among others. Much of Campeche´s artisans work was also decorated with shell inlay and many of their famed writing desks were exported to South America. On the other hand, their famous marquetry inlaid “Campeche” chairs went to the US and the Caribbean.

Today, we may still find a great variety of “Butaques” in Mexico. The “Sillas de Campeche” made in the state of Campeche were known for their beautiful marquetry decoration, while at Haciendas, ranches and Colonial residences in Jalisco, the chair is called “Miguelito” chair. This version however, even if it is similar to a “Silla de Campeche”, the design is more simple and austere. In Tehuantepec, they are made entirely of wood, with cross-slats giving shape to the back and seat. Butaques from the state of Veracruz had caned-seats, making them ideal for the hot and humid climate; and those from the Yucatán Peninsula are made with cowhide or deerskin, sometimes decorated across the top with elegant low-relief carvings.

Copyright © 2010 – 2013 Karin Goyer. All Rights Reserved.

@donshoemaker.com

to be continued in part # 3

Copyright © 2010 – 2012 Karin Goyer. All Rights Reserved.

@donshoemaker.com

Spanish colonists introduced the “Campeche” chair (also known as the “Butaca”) to Louisiana where they became extremely popular amongst the French Creole aristocracy who called them “Boutac chairs” and introduced them into their Plantation Houses in the Bayous and along the Mississippi River. This peculiar leather-seated chair made from ox-hide or mule-hide stretched on a mahogany wood frame, was ideal for lounging in a tropical climate and unlike upholstered furniture, it was free from insects. Early 19th-Century inward foreign cargo manifests in the collection of the National Archives and Records in Fort Worth, Texas, document the shipment of “Spanish chairs”, “Boutaque chairs”, and “arm-chairs” from coastal towns of the Yucatán—Campeche, Veracruz, Sisal and Tabasco—to the port of New Orleans from about 1800 to 1825. Thomas Jefferson appears to have popularized the chair when he served as President, and he continued to use it during his retirement at Monticello. Jefferson favored the “Campeachy” chair form for its classical associations and the comfortable posture it offered, referring to it as “that easy kind of chair.”

The chairs feature an X-form leg and stretcher, one leg of which extends up to form a curved stile for the back, the other forming the seat rail, between these extensions is attach a leather ‘sling’ – often goatskin – which forms the seat and back – the equivalent of a contemporary lounge chair.

Some historic documents indicate that the Mexican “Butaques”brought the form to Havana, Cuba, where it is also called a “Campeche”. Many examples found in the island are known as “Planter’s chairs”, “Havana chairs” or “Smoker’s chairs”. In Jamaica they are known as “Spanish chairs”, in the French colonies such as Martinique and Guadeloupe, they were called “Lazy Man’s chair” or simply “Lazy chairs” (later to be echoed in the Philippines with the term ‘Silla Perezosa’ or “Lazy chair”). Nowadays, these chairs can be found in many countries within Latin America, Spain, the Canary Islands, and in locations that were situated along 18th-Century Spanish trade routes in Asia.

to be continued in Part # 2

Copyright © 2010 – 2012 Karin Goyer. All Rights Reserved.

@donshoemaker.com

One Mexican furniture designer and manufacturer that made a big splash back in the 1970’s was IDEA. This company designed unique furniture pieces combining small blocks of different types of wood with chrome and glass; their model range included elegant office furniture, a variety of cabinets, bars, room dividers, bookcases, lamps and many other gadgets. Their 2 showrooms were located in Mexico City. IDEA´s furniture pieces are easily recognizable; I have included some wonderful samples:

Diego Matthai, Mexican architect and designer is most likely our best representative for furniture designs that integrate modern materials such as chrome into vernacular Mexican forms. Matthai was a pupil of Mathias Goeritz, whose work was heavily influenced by the Bauhaus. Matthai has completed projects of all kinds: office buildings and apartments, private residences, shops, boutiques, malls, office interiors, clubs, restaurants, bars, monumental sculptures and murals. He has also designed jewelry, clothing, accessories and many others. Since the beginning of his career he developed a special interest in furniture design and furnishings. The iconic “Mexico Chair” from 1971 is probably his best-known furniture piece.

…to be continued in part # 9

Copyright © 2010 – 2012 Karin Goyer. All Rights Reserved.

@donshoemaker.com

6) Furniture manufactured by particular designers and Mexican furniture companies that have left us a legacy and should not be forgotten for their enriching contribution to Mexico’s Modernism Furniture Design History, like the Frank Kyle Gallery. Frank Kyle was an American sculptor and furniture designer from Minneapolis, but he mainly lived in California. Kyle moved to Mexico City in the early 1960’s; he married into a prominent Mexican family and opened a gallery where he exhibited his furniture and sculptures. Kyle´s furniture designs included elegant dining sets, chairs, tables, bamboo lamps and screens. One of his trademarks was the exceptional lacquer finish he provided to his furniture pieces… Below some samples:

The Muller’s Onix store, which was famous back in the 60’s until the 80’s for selling beautiful onyx decorative items and furniture, including small and large chess sets, sculptures, platters, bowls, plates and tables in different sizes. The store was located in Mexico City and owned by American Guy Muller, who was also known as “Mr. Onyx”. His beautifully handcrafted Onyx Tables are unique; you may still find them sometimes at Mexico City’s flea markets. A significant number of Muller´s tables and sculptures were sold to the US and Canada.

Founded in 1909 in the northern city of Monterrey, Nuevo León, the Compañía Manufacturera de Muebles La Malinche, S.A. was one of the pioneering furniture manufacturers in Mexico. “La Malinche” specialized in the production of rocking chairs and chairs in all kinds of woods (pine, mahogany, elm, cedar and beech). Their chairs were used almost at every Monterrey household and public spaces like schools, restaurants, hotels, canteens, etc. The company also produced complete living room sets, all sorts of cabinets, coffee tables, bedroom sets, dining rooms, etc. and was well known for its good quality and high manufacturing standards. Regrettably, the factory closed its doors in the early 1970’s. Their furniture designs are very popular among collectors all over Mexico.

…to be continued in part # 8

Copyright © 2010 – 2012 Karin Goyer. All Rights Reserved.

@donshoemaker.com

1) Early work influenced by neoclassicism, which catered to the Mexican bourgeoisie with Arturo Pani and the French-born brothers Roberto and Mito Block as the main players. These highly successful interior decorators became famous for their ironwork with a very clear French influence, mostly produced during the ’40s and ’50s. (Part #3)

2) The austere Bauhaus and International Style influenced furniture that appealed to intellectuals and a young entrepreneurial class, coming from modern designers like Luis Barragán and Clara Porset, Michael van Beuren and architects Pedro Ramírez Vázquez and Francisco Artigas. (Part #1 + Part #5)

3) Furniture designers that developed their very own style, see Pepe Mendoza, William Spratling, Don S. Shoemaker (Part #4) and idiosyncratic figures like Pedro Friedeberg – to be discussed in this post in the Surrealist movement.

4) Outstanding glass mosaic furniture pieces designed by painters and Muralists like Juan O’Gorman with the flowering of the Mexican Muralist movement in the 40’s and 50’s. (Part #2)

One artist that was recognized for his mosaic furniture creations is Genaro Alvarez. The Genaro Alvarez Studio, (located in Mexico City) was known for its mosaic work in murals and floor designs as well as decorative furnishings such as lamps, trays and furniture using various types of natural rocks, semi-precious stones and glass mosaic, and his work is all hand-made. Genaro’s claim to fame was that he had developed a new concept on the manipulation of glass mosaic as an art expression. In the late 1950’s Alvarez was awarded the commission for the mosaic floor for the Hallmark Gift & Card Shop in Kansas City, Missouri. He became very popular and well-known among American collectors.

5) Unique furniture creations coming from the Surrealist movement in Mexico like José Horna’s work; a painter and sculptor of Spanish origin, who migrated with his wife, photographer Kati Horna to Mexico in 1939, after the fall of the Spanish Republic. Both, José and his wife Kati were active in the Surrealist movement in Mexico. José became a disciple of renowned Surrealist painter Remedios Varo, (of Spanish origin as well) and he also collaborated with famous British-Mexican Surrealist painter Leonora Carrington on several projects. Horna left us a legacy of fantastic wood carved sculptures, some furniture pieces, marionettes and toy houses.

Of course, I have to mention within the Surrealist movement our “enfant terrible” Pedro Friedeberg. Friedeberg was born in Italy as the son of German-Jewish parents, who migrated to Mexico when he was 3 years old. He began studying architecture but did not complete his studies as he started to draw designs against the conventional forms of the 1950’s, even completely implausible ones such as houses with artichoke roofs! However, his work caught the attention of German sculptor Mathias Goeritz who encouraged him to continue a career as an artist. Although his work finds echoes in two of the most exciting artistic movements of the 1960’s, POP and Op Art, it is more closely related to late Surrealism. In particular, it reveals his close contacts with the leading European surrealists who had also found refuge in Mexico: Leonora Carrington, Kati Horna, Edward James, Alice Rahon and Remedios Varo, who were irreverent, rejecting the social and political art which was dominant at the time. Friedeberg was also deeply inspired by Goeritz, especially his Dadaist tendencies, which found expression in the avantgarde group known as “The Fed-Up Ones” of the early 1960’s. The work of Friedeberg recombines all these influences into something completely, uniquely, and unmistakably his own.

Although Friedeberg is an accomplished painter, he is famous for his iconic furniture designs, notably the “Butterfly Chair” and the “Hand Chair”. Both pieces were originally designed in the 1960’s, a rejection of the International/Modernist aesthetic and functionalism.

After designing his first chair, Friedeberg went on to design tables, couches, and love seats. This 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 occult. By 1963 Friedeberg had also begun making entirely sculptural works of perversely distorted bodies with appendages taken from religious statuary found in antique shops and flea markets. Today, Pedro continues to produce the “Hand Chair” and the “Butterfly Chair” along with other furniture pieces. Regrettably, Friedeberg’s furniture work is plagued with copycats and replicas.

to be continued in part # 7

Copyright © 2010 – 2012 Karin Goyer. All Rights Reserved.

@donshoemaker.com

Porset won a prize in MoMA’s 1940 “Organic Design for Home Furnishing” contest and in 1946 the Artek-Pascoe furniture company exhibited and sold her work in New York. She was committed to fine craftsmanship, but she was equally a strong believer that well-designed furnishings could be made affordable. In the 1950’s she signed a contract to develop 2 collections of furniture for the office, along with numerous other designs for prestigious furniture manufacturer IRGSA (Industrias Ruíz Galindo, S.A.). These collections were highly successful and mass-produced for many years. Among her most applauded achievements is the outdoor furniture she designed and IRGSA manufactured in 1957 for the Pierre Marqués Hotel in Acapulco. Her work was widely produced by D.M. NACIONAL, DOMUS, S.A., Ruíz y Govea, etc. Porset also designed interiors for Mexico City’s first large-scale public housing project and she collaborated with some of the most representative Mexican architects of her time, including Luis Barragán, Max Cetto, Enrique Yánez and Mario Pani among others.

Edmund J. Spence was an American designer who made a career out of translating international modern styles for the U.S. market. Spence designed a successful blonde wood line made in Sweden and imported by Walpole Furniture of Massachusetts, and another furniture line called “Continental-American Collection“, which was manufactured back in 1953 by the Mexican furniture company Industria Mueblera, S.A., with the brand label “Industria Mueblera of Mexico – Ageless Furniture Edmund J. Spence Design”.

Spence’s design brilliance comes in with his ability to interpret the most important aspects of Mexican design but in a fancy Mid-Century Modern way. Below I have put together some samples from his “Continental-American Collection”:

American born Michael van Beuren was a former student at the influential Bauhaus school in Dessau, Germany during 1931-1932, even though he did not graduate. He moved to Mexico in 1937 and having difficulty to practice his profession as an architect without an official title, he dedicated himself to the design of furniture. In 1938 he started to design furniture together with his colleague from the Bauhaus time, German designer Klaus Grabe, for a small company they called Grabe van Beuren y Cía. In 1941 the MoMA organized the “Organic Design for Home Furnishings,” a competition which opened to design teams from Latin America. One of the winning entries in the contest was a Chaise Longue designed by the team Klaus Grabe, Morely Webb and Michael van Beuren. The winning submissions earned the prize of having their designs industrialized and sold by the Bloomingdale’s department store. Grabe soon left Mexico to settle in New York where he ran Klaus Grabe Inc. and pursued his quest for modern low-cost furniture.

Van Beuren founded DOMUS - his first furniture brand – and probably his best known in Mexico. In 1950 Fredderick T. van Beuren, Michael´s brother took over the workshop production envisioning the company´s growth potential to become a mass producing furniture factory. At that time the company dropped its name DOMUS to become Van Beuren S.A. de C.V. By the mid-50’s Van Beuren, S.A. de C.V. was already mass producing complete furniture lines and models. Clara Porset manufactured her designs for the US market through Michael van Beuren´s Company.

British architect Philip Guilmant, who had arrived in Mexico in 1954, joined the Van Beuren team in 1957. He greatly contributed to the success of the company with the design of 2 very well-known furniture lines: the Danish Collection (1957) and the simple and economic Pine Line (1958). By that time, the company was producing around 50 chairs per week… The Van Beuren brothers helped re-shape interior design across Mexico with mass produced industrial and affordable furnishings that found their way into countless homes and offices. Besides Domus, Van Beuren produced other furniture lines that were also very successful like Calpini (1951) and Decapóls (1961); the last one became very popular when marketed at the El Puerto de Liverpool department store chain. Production lines extended as well to other store chains like Salinas y Rocha and El Palacio de Hierro. However, in 1973 Michael Van Beuren sold the brand and factory to Singer.

…to be continued in part # 6

Copyright © 2010 – 2012 Karin Goyer. All Rights Reserved.

@donshoemaker.com

Spratling visited Mexico for the first time in 1926. He returned for summers over the next several years, and in 1929, he finally moved to Mexico. He quickly integrated himself into the Mexican art scene and became a friend and a strong proponent of the work of muralist Diego Rivera, for whom he organized an exhibition at the MoMA in New York. Using money received from commissions he organized for Rivera, Spratling purchased a home in Taxco, southwest of Mexico City. In 1931, the US Ambassador to Mexico, Dwight Morrow, suggested to Spratling that the city of Taxco had been the site of silver mines for centuries, but had never been considered a location where jewelry and objects of silver were designed and made. Subsequently, Spratling hired an experienced goldsmith from Iguala who moved to Taxco and created silver jewelry of Spratling’s design. Other craftsmen joined Spratling’s shop and produced tin ware, copper items, textiles and furniture – all designed by Spratling. These earliest designs were based on pre-Columbian motifs as well as simple themes utilizing rope borders, strap designs and other such basic ideas. He often adopted the stylized animal motifs found in Mexican pottery and incorporated native materials such as amethyst and rosewood into his designs. The workshop grew far beyond Spratling’s expectations… By 1940 Spratling employed 300 artisans and Taxco had become a major tourist destination for those seeking silverwork. He began to export silver items to U.S. department stores including Neiman Marcus, Macy’s and Saks. Ironically, the 1940’s boom in Taxco silver production ultimately led to the downfall of Spratling’s company “Spratling y Artesanos”, which by 1946 went out of business. In 1951 Spratling founded a new company—William Spratling, S.A. and continued to work throughout the 1950’s and ’60’s. His designs were also produced by the Conquistador Company in Mexico City for a couple of years. One of the last things he was working on at his ranch in Taxco was the production of furniture for Marilyn Monroe.

Spratling’s silver designs have always been copied but now, perhaps because of the higher prices Spratling’s name commands I have seen an increasing number of William Spratling attributed furniture designs.

Don S. Shoemaker is in my opinion the most remarkable representative of Mexico Modernism furniture design. Don and his wife Barbara settled down in Santa Maria Guido, Morelia in 1951. He began producing wooden items, from jewelry boxes to sculptures and stunning pieces of furniture made of hardwoods grown in the local mountains. The first couple of years were less than easy and in 1955 the Shoemakers were forced to leave the country; their small enterprise was turned over to a cooperative which 2 years later went broke. Their life project continued when the Mexican government invited them to return to Morelia and the furniture workshop SEÑAL, S.A. was founded.

Don left us an unrivaled aesthetic legacy through his furniture designs; he developed his very own identity and style which remained evolving throughout his whole career maintaining the principles of high quality hand-craftsmanship and the intensive use of native Mexican exotic woods. His organic forms were unmatchable by any other furniture designer of his time. During his more than 3 decades of dedicated work Don designed a significant number of iconic furniture masterpieces, all produced in hardwoods, which he favored for their inherent strength, durability and magnificent beauty:

•Organic designs: the most unique Sling “folding” chair (an armchair with folding braces), his Sling “Sloucher” and “Swinger” chairs.

•Rectilinear designs: the “Parsons Line” including suites for every room.

•Coffee table designs: the “Cuerno”, “Sling”, “Elephant” Lounge and “Descanso” coffee tables.

•Dining room set designs: the “Sling” dining room set, cabinets and sideboards.

•Lounge and living room designs: the “Descanso” set and the “Pernos” Lounge set.

•Progressive designs: the famous stack-laminated “Diamond” desk and tables.

Below are some pictures from my personal Don S. Shoemaker collection, a look into the Shoemaker mood when you have a home completely furnished by our master:

Don´s heir, George R. Shoemaker, takes over the company in 1990, after Don passed away. Regrettably George faced some serious problems with characters related with SEÑAL, S.A. which started producing unlicensed copies; so the company had to be dissolved and changed its name to “ARRENDADORA SHOEMAKER”. George continued reproducing Don´s designs under this new label; he improved some of Don´s furniture lines and he developed some own new furniture designs. One of George´s masterpieces are his iconic Bar furniture sets produced in cueramo, he only made a limited edition of 5 of them. However, I will not present at this time any pictures of this magnificent Bar Set to avoid future forgeries.

Unfortunately, George´s health declines extremely fast and production activity goes to almost zero. George passes away and the workshop finally closes in the early 2000’s. Many George R. Shoemaker furniture pieces are copied and sold as “Don S. Shoemaker originals” not recognizing George´s talent and contribution to his Dad´s work. He was a great designer by his own right. He had a restless mind and he also experimented in Art Nouveau, Art Deco and even English XIX Century styles.

Po Shun Leong is an artist, former architect, sculptor and furniture maker. Of Chinese origin, Leong was born in London and lived in Mexico for 15 years. He arrived in Mexico in 1964. For several years, he practiced architecture, designing a series of large furniture stores, residences and commercial exhibitions. He developed many furniture designs and was awarded an Honorable Mention in the Knoll International Furniture Competition, 2 Gold Medal Awards for fiberglass furniture in the IMCE, (Mexican Export Competition) and two 1st prizes in the low cost furniture competition.

In the early 1980’s the Leong family immigrated to Southern California. He set up a studio in his garage to produce prototypes and taught himself woodworking. He became known since the late 1980’s for his highly intricate and inspiring one-of-a-kind wood boxes that have been enthusiastically acquired and are in many museum collections. Po Shun has created at least a 1000 boxes and one-of-a-kind furniture objects. Lately he has been experimenting with bent plywood forms to produce affordable furniture.

I already published some posts on Po Shun Leong’s stay in Mexico, and his friendship with Don S. Shoemaker (see Don S. Shoemaker and Po Shun Leong Parts 1 & 2 and Mexican Design exhibition at the MAM in 1975 – Part #3).

…to be continued in part # 5

Copyright © 2010 – 2012 Karin Goyer. All Rights Reserved.

@donshoemaker.com