Esoteric Survey

Last November I went to the Don S. Shoemaker exhibition at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City
Don Shoemaker was born in Nebraska. He fought in WWII and moved to Mexico in 1947. Shortly after, he started a furniture and craft business in Señal SA in Morelia, Michoacán and lived there until his death in 1990.
The museum worked with Don's grandson, Stanley Shoemaker. This would explain the substantial ephemera stash they had on display.











The piece on the right is a lamp.



A painting by Don

Los Manantiales by Felix Candela, in Mexico City
The restaurant was designed by the Spanish-born architect in 1958. The structure, comprised of four thin-shelled concrete hyperbolic paraboloids, is referred to as "la flor" (the flower) by the locals in Xochimilco.

I spoke to the lady who runs the restaurant. She said the building was just awarded some sort of historical designation, but the government doesn't offer any funding for restoration.
The mosaic mural on the wall in front of the building shows the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco, which are just behind the restaurant.
Groups rent boats and have parties as they're taken through the canals. Smaller boats pull up and offer drinks and snacks for sale.

I hired my own boat and went solo. I guess that doesn't happen often. I was getting a lot of funny looks, or maybe they just felt bad for me.
How else was I going to get this view?

Los Manantiales is about an hour car ride from central Mexico City.

Luis Barragan built some great walls in Mexico. 
Luis Barragan 
Barragan paid for his own walls at Casa Luis Barragan.
Juan O'Gorman
Mathais Goeritz
Mathais Goeritz and Ricardo Legorreta
The Mexican government, through a program led by Diego Rivera, paid American-born artist Isamu Noguchi to build this wall in Mexico City. The mural deals with greedy capitalists and fascism. It was done in the early 1930's and is unfortunately relevant again.

I'm trying to catch up on photos from my trip to Mexico City in November. Here's Cuadra San Cristobal (1966) by Luis Barragan














 The stables



View from the stable house
I didn't see any horses on my visit, so here's a 1976 photo by Rene Burri