Born today in Florence, Italy, Pedro Friedeberg, being of German Jewish descent, arrived in Mexico with his parents when he was three years old. His childhood was tumultous, filled with rules and discipline he prefers not to discuss. But he did show an interest at an early age in art and drawing, in fact his mother remembers him attempting to draw a church in Florence at the age of two.
Friedeberg studied architecture for a time at Universidad Iberoamericana, but losing interest in the symmetrical rigidity, and structure encouraged in building design, he turned to furniture design and Surrealism. He became known as the last of the great eccentrics, saying "the world lacks eccentrics today because people have returned to being sheep through the consumer culture and television which wants us all to be the same".
The Hand Chair is his best known work, but quite a prolific artist, Friedeberg has created hundreds of murals, paintings, and sculptural furniture. As evidenced by the painting I am including today (La Casa Irracional), his drawings, paintings and even furniture incorporate symbols, ornamentation and useless objects. He has said he's painted at least one canvas a week for the past 50 years! His work has ben exhibited all over the world. Friedeberg lives in Mexico City with his wife Carmen Guieterrez.
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