Photo Credit: Jasmin Van T
Last week, a select group of art and tequila lovers were treated to a dinner with renowned Mexican artist Pedro Friedeberg. The last living member of the Mexican Surrealist movement, Friedeberg is known for fantastical pieces filled with architecture, symbols, shapes, and colors. His most famous work is Hand Chair, a sculpture that doubles as a chair where the palm is the seat, and the fingers serve as the back and armrests. Guests at the dinner were each given a miniature replica of Hand Chair.
Photo Credit: Jasmin Van T
The event, which took place at the Battery, in the rooftop penthouse, was hosted by The Supper Club in partnership with luxury tequila brand, Maestro Dobel. After a cocktail reception where revelers sipped Black Diamond Margaritas and tequila Negronis, Friedeberg delighted the group with a candid conversation. When his assistant Alejandro Sordo asked the 82-year-old creative when he first knew that he wanted to be an artist, Friedeberg replied, jokingly, “I’m still not aware that I want to be an artist.”
With strong opinions and an expressive tone, Friedeberg talked about everything from the current state of the art world to his famous ex-wife, Polish countess Wanda Zamoyska. “Nowadays, anybody’s an artist. Especially conceptual artists. When I was young you still had to learn to paint, to draw; you had to paint nudes, horses, still lifes especially,” Friedeberg says complaining that art has become too mainstream. “Art was very boring then, but now it’s even more boring. You travel 60 miles, to see somebody’s show and it’s a pile of dirt with a shovel in it, and it’s called The Mona Lisa Upside Down or something.”
Photo Credit: Jasmin Van T
After sipping Maestro Dobel’s smooth reposado, Friedeberg turned his attention toward tequila and Zamoyska. “She used to put tequila in champagne, and she made a mistake. She took one of my bottles of ink, and she put the ink in the champagne. And when she ran out of champagne, she would drink Chanel No. 5. So after 25 years of that, we had to get divorced. My brain went soft, and it hasn’t recovered yet,” he said, downing the rest of his tequila.
Photo Credit: Jasmin Van TFrom an 11th-generation family of tequila makers, Maestro Dobel is committed to sustainability and producing the highest quality agave-based spirit. Friedeberg and friends were treated to Maestro Dobel’s Diamante, a new category of ultra-premium aged tequila. Known as Cristalino, the Diamante is essentially an añejo—aged tequila—but stripped of color through filtration. Dobel’s Cristalino is a blend of extra-añejo, añejo, and reposado tequila aged in European oak. The elixir is double-filtered to ensure pure clearness and smooth character.
Photo Credit: Jasmin Van T
Supper Club members and Maestro Dobel enjoyed the Diamante, which is best sipped neat or on the rocks. The three-course meal prepared by the Battery’s culinary team included a crab cake salad, charred steak with avocado, and a decadent chocolate dessert. Friedeberg wowed the crowd—which included the Supper Club’s founder Tamsin Lonsdale, Jay Jeffers’ creative director Michael Purdy, and The Caviar Company’s Petra Bergstein—with stories from his heyday until the wee hours of the morning.
Photo Credit: Jasmin Van T
Photo Credit: Jasmin Van T
Photo Credit: Jasmin Van T
Photo Credit: Jasmin Van T
Photo Credit: Jasmin Van T
