Pedro Friedeberg, The Last Surrealist.
by Fiammetta De Michele.
People often like to romanticize the past. There is always the feeling that the past is a better place, a more magical time like the Garden of Eden. The past was more poetic and less about the money or the elites!
Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen is all about that idea. One lucky guy, Owen Wilson, time traveled from the modern times back to a completely different artistic time, The Roaring 20s, also known as the Belle Époque in Paris. The protagonist revisited these periods night after night noticing that every artistic period is essentially the same. Maybe it is this nostalgia for the past that creates such good memories and fantasies?
I can’ t accept the idea that being around a surrealist crowd in the 1960s of Mexico can be compared to today. Maybe it is just because I love the over the top: quality and and energy. Jodorowsky running naked for a publicity stunt, Edward James fighting with Leonora Carrington due to his habit of leaving his Iguanas and serpents in her apartment… etc.This idea is so exciting to me; it’s like a mermaid’s melody to a sailor’s heart.
Within this circus, there was one charming man. A four times married, Mr. Pedro Friedeberg was the Lord of Surrealism. Pedro Friedeberg was the only other one along with Frida Kahlo to be recognized by Andre Breton as a true surrealist among numerous Mexican artists making him the last Mexican surrealist alive.
De Chirico and Escher fascinated him. He was equally obsessed with the use of mirrors, parallel words, icons and totems. But there was so much more than surrealism in his work from architecture to metaphysics and psychedelics, Op art.When someone masters their technique and creates with absolute artistic freedom, wonderful things happen.
Mr. Friedeberg said, drawing is a therapy for him, It’s a cathartic process.
He drew detailed patterned painting obesseively and compulsively. This was a stress releasing process for similar to reciting a mantra. In fact, even his canvases looks like mandalas. And like Mandalas, you get lost in them. It lets the canvas hypnotize you.
Fiammetta De Michele: You were part of a group called Los Hartos, The Fed Up, in 1961. This group involved the sculpture Mathias Goeritz. The energy of cultural provocation was visible. I could feel the courage and passion of that work. What were you rebelling to? What was upsetting you?
Pedro Friedeberg: Everything, the vulgarity and the repetition of imbecile art like Andy Warhol’s. The simplicity of Donald Judd, the boredom of Rotchko etc.. etc.. There’s something upsetting me now too. Artists used to be people with some culture, education, talent. Now i find them stupid, boring, greedy and narcissistic. I could name a thousand of them but then i would be left friendless. Everything nowadays is interviews, parties, fun, egomania. This leave no time for authentic intelligent creativity or philosophical depth in daily or not daily life. Life has become Life on the Internet and there’s a total lack of privacy because of the mobile phones, and apps pups epps ipps & opps.
FDM: I think about your correspondence with Duncan Fallowell, for example. People now send emails, they write and they click the send button. It’s a very cold process. Do you think technology is stunting the artistic process, and in a way our artistic freedom too?
PF: I had correspondence with Ray Johnson (a Fluxus artist and a pioneer of Mail Art), and Anna Banana, and Irene Dogmatic too. Technology and comfortably stupidity have destroyed art!
FDM: Are there any artists you admire?
PF: Alan Glass, Leonora Carrington, Xul Solar and myself! James G.Flynn, Carmen Gutierrez, Zachary Selig and Diana Friedeberg.
FDM: Where are you most inspired?
PF: Santa Maria Tonantzintla, Puebla and Pochutla, Oaxaca.
FDM: If your paintings could have a soundtrack, what would it be?
PF: Boccherini’s.
Text and interview by Fiammetta De Michele.
Pictures by Tigre Escobar.
Spanish version below.
Curiosities inside Pedro Friedeberg’s library.
Pedro Friedeberg, El Ultimo Surrealista.
A la gente a menudo le gusta idealizar el pasado. Existe siempre la sensación de que el pasado es un lugar mejor, un momento más mágico como el Jardín del Edén. El pasado era más poético y ¡menos relacionado con el dinero o las élites! “Midnight in Paris” de Woody Allen trata sobre esa idea.
Un tipo con suerte, Owen Wilson, viaja en el tiempo desde los tiempos actuales a una época artística completamente diferente, los Locos Años 20, también conocida como la Belle Époque en París. El protagonista volvió a visitar estas épocas noche tras noche, dándose cuenta de que cada periodo artístico es esencialmente el mismo.
¿Tal vez sea esta nostalgia del pasado la que crea tan buenos recuerdos y fantasías? Alguien dijo una vez, “Lo irreal es más poderoso que lo irreal. Porque nada es tan perfecto como se puede imaginar…”
Aún así, no puedo aceptar la idea de que estar cerca de una multitud surrealista en la década de los 60 de México se pueda comparar con la actualidad.? Tal vez es sólo porque me encanta el “en la parte superior: calidad y energía. Jodorowsky corriendo desnudo para un truco publicitario, Edward James luchando con Leonora Carrington debido a su costumbre de dejar sus iguanas y serpientes en el apartamento de ella, etc. Esta idea es tan emocionante para mí, es como la melodía de las sirenas para el corazón de un marinero.
Dentro de este circo, había un hombre encantador. Cuatro veces casado, el Sr. Pedro Friedeberg era el Señor del Surrealismo. Pedro Friedeberg fue el único, junto con Frida Kahlo, en ser reconocido por André Breton como un verdadero surrealista entre numerosos artistas mexicanos, que hacen que él sea el último surrealista mexicano. De Chirico y Escher le fascinaban.
Estaba igualmente obsesionado con el uso de espejos, el paralelismo entre palabras, iconos y tótems. Pero había mucho más que el surrealismo en su obra, desde la arquitectura hasta la metafísica y la psicodelia, Op Art. Cuando alguien domina su técnica y crea con libertad artística absoluta, cosas maravillosas suceden.
Sr. Friedeberg dijo que dibujar era una terapia para él, era un proceso catártico. Dibujó patrones detallados pintando obsesiva y compulsivamente. Esto fue un proceso de liberación de estrés similar a recitar un mantra. De hecho, incluso sus lienzos parecen Mándalas. Y como Mándalas, te pierdes en ellos. Dejan que el lienzo te hipnotice.
Intervista de Fiammetta De Michele.
Fotograifas para Tigre Escobar.
