Esoteric Survey

 Raul Coronel, Isamu Noguchi,Peter Shire, David Stewart and Rose Dodds Another Isamu Noguchi Akari lamp Raul Coronel lion Peter Shire wood cup from 1988

 John Follis for Architectural Pottery, fake Tackett cansiers and a Kenji Fujita vessel. Pond Farm / Marguerite Wildenhain Ben Seibel for Jenfred Ware. Distributed by Raymor. Ashtray from the Craig Ellwood designed South Bay Bank Stool by Phillip Lewis, as seen in the exhibition, STOOLS from the JF Chen Collection , by  Marta  &  JF Chen . More on the exhibition, here .  A book was published by Marta and JF Chen.  I've had a number of these stools over the years but never knew who designed them. I was told by a dealer who I purchased one from that he once had one with a Made in Japan sticker under the seat. That turns out to be not true. It turns out that they were made by a San Francisco Bay Area woodworker named Phillip Lewis. The information came from the family who purchased one from a friend in San Francisco. Fortunately that information came about about as Marta was cataloging the exhibition and I was able to pass along the information. The f...

Casa Jardín Ortega  (1942) by Luis  Barragán . This project started out as the first house the architect designed for himself. The property was part of a larger parcel  he  purchased and subdivided. There was a small existing structure when he purchased it. The Ortega house is special, not only because it's so early in his career but it was also initially designed for the architect to use himself. It showcases many ideas  Barragán would use over and over again in other works. Barragán said this about the house: “In 1941, I made my first garden in Mexico City. I acquired a piece of land with different levels, I complemented and leveled different platforms to create a garden in compartments, recalling the beauty of the patios and gardens of the Alhambra and the Generalife in Spain“ Barragán  lived in the house until 1947. He then sold it to Alfredo Ortega , a master silversmith. Barragan did not go far. The second and final house he built for himself is ...

 

I was finally able to visit the Max Cetto house and studio in Mexico City. Cetto designed the house for himself and family in 1949. It is located south of central Mexico City in  Jardines del Pedregal  de San Ángel. Luis Barragan saw the potential in the lava fields of the Xitle and in 1945 purchased purchased property with José Alberto Bustamante. Barragan then created a plan for Pedregal and began selling properties. Some of Mexico's greatest modern architects, like Francisco Artigas, Enrique Castañeda Tamborrell, José María Buendía, Antonio Attolini, Fernando Ponce Pino, Oscar Urrutia and Manuel Rosen constructed homes in Pedregal. However, the first to build was German émigré Max Cetto. In his book (which is one of the best on the subject), Modern Architecture in Mexico , Cetto said... "Certainly it is not Barragan's fault that many of the houses in what is now the city's most exclusive residential area have not risen to the opportunity presented by the unusual cha...