Clara Porset: The designer who revolutionized Mexico and the chairs

September 10, 2019 at 15:39 hrs.


Clara Porset: The designer who revolutionized Mexico and the chairs


Clara Porset was born in Cuba in 1895, in a wealthy family.

His education was received from the best of his time, so Europe and the United States They were key sites in its formation.

Even in Paris, he took classes with the painter, illustrator and designer Henri Rapin.

it was like this designer and architect he was aware of the latest trends from France, Germany or Scandinavia.

But she was also a woman who expressed her thoughts and concerns for her country.

Due to his ideals and political activism, he found himself in need of exile in Mexico, where she developed mainly as a furniture designer.

for social equality 

 

Porset arrived in Mexico when Lázaro Cárdenas was president. 

Muralism was at its peak and the national functionalism of the 30s was at its peak.

His contemporaries were Luis Barragan and Mario Pani, to name a few.

However, the one who marked his life was the artist and social fighter Xavier Guerrero, with whom he married.

Thus, Porset reaffirmed his desire to help erase social and economic differences.

But how?

Through design with an element accessible to all: the armchair chair.

This piece of furniture gathered all the qualities to belong to any person.

It combined modernity and traditional uses, as well as materials: wood, fibers, leather, etc.

And each region modified it with certain adaptations of the place. It could be said that it was a mestizo chair.

Porset was a passionate and kind woman, who taught at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

And that it was also recognized at the Museum of Fine Arts with the exhibition art of daily life.

Undoubtedly a woman who became one of the main design references in Mexico and Cuba, and who passed away on May 17, 1981.