The present table lamp in the interior of the Prieto Lopez House, Mexico City, 1992. Artwork © 2024 Barragan Foundation, Switzerland / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Luis Barragán is widely recognized as one of the 20th century’s most influential architects. His serene, richly colored buildings, gardens, and interiors have become synonymous with Latin American modernism despite having a relatively small body of realized projects, many of which were private commissions for wealthy clients. In many of Barragán’s residential commissions, he would select furniture and lighting—some he designed himself, other works produced by local artisans and artists. The present table lamps, made by the artist Hugo Velásquez, (lots 115 and 120) are from Casa Prieto López designed by Barragán and completed in 1951. Barragán was a supporter of Velásquez and commissioned lamps and other ceramic works from the artist to use throughout various projects.

Exterior of Hugo Velásquez's studio, Mexico.

Hugo Velásquez was himself one of the preeminent contemporary Mexican ceramists and he pioneered the use of stoneware in the country. Having moved to the United States in the late 1950s, Velásquez apprenticed for Karen Karnes at Gate Hill Cooperative in Stony Point, New York and, for a time, found himself among the company of American artists such as Franz Kline, De Kooning, Rothko, Pollock, and Motherwell. In the early 1960s, he returned to Mexico and held his first exhibition of vases and pots. Velásquez set up a studio and maintained a lifelong artistic practice alongside commissions for tableware, vases, pots, and lamps. It was likely this combination of the aesthetic rigor of a true artist and the practicality of his products which Barragán recognized in Velásquez. It is undoubtably the same rigorous standard Barragán held for himself.
- Provenance
  Eduardo Prieto López, Mexico City, acquired from the artist, 1960s
  César Cervantes, Mexico City, acquired from the above, 2013
  Side Gallery, Barcelona, acquired from the above, 2018
  Acquired from the above by the present owner, 2021
- Literature
  María Luisa Puga, La Cerámica de Hugo X. Velásquez: Cuando rinde el horno, Mexico City, 1983, p. 44 for similar ceramic bases
  José Alvarez Checa and Manuel Ramos Guerra, eds., Luis Barragan Morfin 1902-1988: Obra Construida, Seville, 1991, illustrated p. 142
  Yutaka Saito, ed., Luis Barragan, Tokyo, 1992, illustrated pp. 170, 172, 174