Pedro Friedeberg Mexican, b. 1936

Pedro Friedeberg and his parents immigrated to Mexico in 1940 from Florence, Italy. As a child he was particularly drawn to the illusionistic representation of architectural space, both in Italian Renaissance architecture and 18th century painting, as well as in the work of M.C. Escher and Josef Albers. He studied architecture at the Universidad Iberoamericana, México City, where he was profoundly influenced by Mathias Goeritz  (1915-1990) and his Bauhaus ways of teaching. Goeritz became a mentor, lifelong friend, collaborator, and champion of Friedeberg’s distinctive work. 

Although Friedeberg’s artworks are sometimes described as Surrealist or Fantastic Realist, they are not easily definable in terms of conventional categories. His works include paintings, sculpture, printmaking, installations, and constructed montages, where the surrealist space is populated with borrowed and personal symbols. “Who knows what one does or why? I think of my work as a pastiche. There’s a little bit of everything I like in there.” – Pedro Friedeberg.

Friedeberg has held individual exhibitions in Mexico, the United States, and Europe, notably mentioning Una retrospectiva Pedro Friedeberg: Arquitecto de confusiones impecables, Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico; Found in Translation: Design in California and Mexico, 1915-1985, LACMA, Los Angeles, CA, and Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design 1924- Today, the Design Museum, London, England. He has also been featured and reviewed in publications such as Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, Noir Magazine, Vogue México, and W Magazine. The artist has exhibited extensively in museums, among others, Hamburger Bahnhof Museum, Berlin, Germany; Museum of Contemporary Art, Phoenix, AZ; San Antonio Museum of Art, TX; Museo de Arte Moderno, Tel Aviv, Israel; the Casa de las Americas, Habana, Cuba, and many more.

Friedberg’s artworks can be found in more than 50 international museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY; the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris France; Musée du Louvre, Pavillon Art Décoratifs, Paris, France; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Cafesjian Center for the Arts, Yerevan, Armenia; The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C and Los Angeles County  Museum of Art, CA. among others.

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