Designing Women

During the course of my trips to Mexico City, I have made several visits to the Franz Mayer Museum.  It contains the largest collection of decorative arts in Latin America.  Franz Mayer (1882 - 1975) was a German-born financier who settled in Mexico in 1905.  During his lifetime he amassed an enormous collection of fine and decorative arts.  In his will, he donated his collection to the people of Mexico, and in 1986 the museum was opened in a colonial building which once housed a hospital.

I returned to the museum last week to see a couple of special exhibits that were being held there.  The first, entitled "Design in a Feminine Key", focuses on Mexican women designers from 1940 to the present.  Some are designers of traditional handicrafts; others are avant garde.  Here is a sample of the objects on display...

  Cotton and lace dress by Tachi Castillo, 1970

Cotton tunic dress by Josefa Ibarra, 1970

Silver and amethyst pitcher by Ana María Nuñez Brilanti

Copper and silver necklace by Ana Pellicer, 2005

Petate (a palm-fiber floor mat traditionally used for sleeping)

by Felipa Tzeek Neel, 1996

Mirror, couch and pillows by Anne Marie Midy, 2000

Hand-painted dinnerware by Cecilia León de la Barra, 2010

Woven wall hanging by Marisol Centeno, 2019

Cotton rebozo (shawl) with feather trim by Cecilia Baustista Caballero, 2011

Set of clay jars by Perla Valtierra, 2022

Lacquer plate by Martina Navarro González, 2013

Dinnerware by Marcela Calderón Bony, 2022