In the first half of the 20th century, renowned Mexican architect Luis Barragán commissioned drawings by the illustrator Miguel Covarrubias, who was known for his celebrity caricatures on the covers of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. Almost a century later, artist Jorge Satorre studied these drawings in depth to prepare for yet another commission from the Barragán House—this time, of his own work. Based on the cartoonish drawings of Covarrubias, Satorre’s whimsical terracotta forms feel like three-dimensional sketches as the artist renders the same body parts over and over in different moods and styles.
Jorge Satorre graduated from the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Azcapotzalco, Mexico. He lives and works in Paris. He worked as a magazine illustrator for several years but now produces drawings, videos, and performances. For The Barry's Van Tour (2007) Satorre restored an abandoned van, which had belonged to a fisherman, now deceased, on the island of Cork, Ireland, making drawings and videos throughout the process. He ultimately restored the van to its original spot, investigating the monumentality of the object and how his interventions were implicated, or not, in its status.