Found in Translation / LACMA

Butaca Chair (1940) by William Spratling. Chest by Elizabeth Jane Colter for the Fred Harvey Corporation. The chest was was used in the La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona. They are being exhibited in Found in Translation: Design in California and Mexico, 1915–1985 at LACMA is part of PST: LALA. The exhibition examines design dialogues between California and Mexico. This includes Americans working in Mexico, Mexicans working in California and the cultural influences and exchanges between the two.

Frank Kyle chair from his Willow series (1953). Kyle was American, but worked in Mexico City. The Peineta chair (1952) by Canadian-born designer, Edmund Spence. He worked mostly in the United States, but for a time his furniture was produced by
Industria Mueblera S.A. of Mexico.

Michael van Beuren, Don Shoemaker and Clara Porset all moved to Mexico from their respective countries. Van Beuren and Shoemaker came from the United States and established their own furniture manufacturing companies. Porset was born in Cuba, but spent most of her life designing in Mexico. Porset and van Beuren were both trained in Europe, and were influenced by the Bauhaus.

Clara Porset Butaca Chair, mid-1950s.

San Miguelito chair by Michael van Beuren. After studying under Josef Albers at the Bauhaus in Germany in 1932 and then with Mies van der Rohe in Berlin after the Bauhaus closed,he was offered a job as an architect in Mexico. He moved there in 1937 and established his company, Domus, in Mexico City in 1938. Ana Elena Mallet has written a great book in him, Bauhaus and Modern Mexico Design by Van Beuren. She also co-wrote a section with Staci Steinberger in LACMA's catalog for this exhibition. You should definitely pick it up.

Po Shun Leong, the designer of the fiberglass chaise (foreground), was influenced by San Diego designer Douglas Deeds after seeing his work (background) pictured in a California Design catalog. Leong was born in Britain and lived in Mexico from 1966 to 1981.

Pedro Friedeberg

1984 LA Olympics totems designed by Deborah Sussman and 1968 Mexico City dress with a Lance Wyman design.

The Eames film, Day of The Dead (1957), documents All Souls’ Day, celebrated in Mexico on the first day of November.

Deborah Sussman worked on the poster design while she worked at the Eames Office.

Jorge Wilmot ceramic, with Salvador Vasquez Carmona painted design (left) and dolls by another Eames Office employee, Marilyn Neauhart. The dolls were sold through Herman Miller's Textile & Objects shop, which was curated by Alexander Girard.

Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman worked with artisans in Mexico to produce their weavings and mosaics.

Cynthia Sargent "Scarlatti "rug. The rugs were sold at Riggs-Sargent, a showroom Sargent operated with her husband Wendell Riggs. She was a painter and he was a weaver. The two Americans catered to an upscale market and the rugs were distributed in the United States by Jack Lenor Larsen.

Ruth Asawa learned her wire loop technique from watching artisans in Toluca, Mexico.

This particular sculpture from 1961 was made for Buckminster and Anne Fuller, who inspired Ruth to travel to Mexico while she was a student at Black Mountain College.