Clara Porset Dumas

Key Works and Projects

Butaque chairs (various versions, 1940s–1970s), her most emblematic work, what MoMA senior curator Paola Antonelli called "the Latin American chair," a series of modernist reinterpretations of the traditional Mexican butaque that updated proportions and incorporated new materials such as woven agave fiber, hemp, leather and metal alongside wood. These chairs were produced by Michael van Beuren's Domus label and later used extensively in interiors by Luis Barragán, becoming icons of Mexican modernism.

E-series and H-series office furniture for Ruiz Galindo Industries (1950s), two complete collections of wooden and metal office furniture that became the most popular furnishings in Mexico due to their combination of high design, durability and relatively low cost.

Curation of Arte en la vida diaria: exposición de objetos de buen diseño hechos en México (Art in Daily Life: An Exhibition of Well-Designed Objects Made in Mexico) at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico City (1952), an expansive exhibition that featured both handcrafted and mass-produced objects and included work by Michael van Beuren, William Spratling, Los Castillo and others.

Defining Mexican Modernism

Advocacy and Education