Duncan Fallowell

What’s to become of Pedro Friedeberg’s letters?

Duncan Fallowell has delighted for many years in the letters of his Mexican friend Pedro Friedeberg, but wonders what on earth to do with them

Getty Images | Shutterstock | iStock | Alamy 
issue 11 April 2015

The year 2015 has been designated one of Anglo-Mexican amity, with celebrations planned in both countries by both governments. But it looks as though one name will be missing from the list: Pedro Friedeberg’s. ‘Who?’ you may ask. Well, in 1982 I was in Mexico City to interview Gabriel García Márquez after he’d won the Nobel Prize for Literature. At a party given by a Mexican art-collector, I noticed several zany pictures on the wall. ‘They’re all by Pedro Friedeberg, my favourite Mexican artist,’ said the collector. I stared at one large framed square after another, at pictures in which the Old World and the New seemed conjoined in a frantic, electrified marriage.

The following week the Mexican currency collapsed. As I was walking past a gallery in the Zona Rosa, a painting in the window arrested me. Strangely attired maidens floated in a room which had a 19th-century look — until I peered more closely and saw that its wallpaper was patterned with tiny repetitions of E=mc2. The picture was entitled ‘The Levitation of the Three Virgins of Guadalajara’, and it was by Pedro Friedeberg.

I went in. The assistant explained that the currency was still collapsing, but did I have any dollars? I did, in the form of traveller’s cheques. In which case the picture could be mine for $120. It was very large. ‘We can ship it to London.’ I wanted it, but I was about to leave for Acapulco. ‘We can reserve it for you.’ I remember thinking at the time that unless I took it with me, I might never see it again, but that it was too big to carry. I turned it down.

I have never stopped kicking myself since. That picture was me, was mine.

GIF Image

Disagree with half of it, enjoy reading all of it

TRY 3 MONTHS FOR $5
Our magazine articles are for subscribers only. Start your 3-month trial today for just $5 and subscribe to more than one view

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in