One on One: Clara Porset’s Butaque

The butaque, although it has many variants, generally adheres to certain structural conventions. The word “butaque” designates a low chair with a curved structure made of wood and a seat of animal skin. Art historian Jorge Rivas Pérez, who has delved deep into the history of this chair, observes that the piece first emerged in Cumaná, Venezuela, toward the end of the 16th century, and borrows elements of the pre-Columbian chairs known as duhos as well as from the X-form folding chairs that the Spanish conquistadores brought to the Americas.¹ The first known mentions of butaques in Mexico date back to early cargo manifests in the states of Campeche and Veracruz. The former became a center of production and export of this chair, on account of which it was occasionally called the “Campeche chair.” Indeed, there are several versions of butaques in different parts of Latin America, each adapted to geographic and climatic conditions and available materials.

Unknown designer. Butaque armchair. 1780–1820. Campeche, Mexico. Spanish cedar, leather, and metal

In the butaque, Clara Porset recognized a design that reflected Mexico’s complex national identity. Her research enabled her to understand the structural characteristics of the chair: how the curvature of the legs is achieved by working with the wood, how the seat and support are engineered with small planks, which cause less waste, and are joined very securely thanks to the large contact surface among the parts. She observed that the continuous curve integrating seat and support is a central design element that, if poorly handled, affects comfort and ease of use. She experimented with varying the structure’s dimensions and the seat’s material. She tested a large range of textures with different fabrics and animal skins. Over the course of several years, she concentrated on these analyses of the butaque’s structure in order to modify it, and through this process tried out a variety of proportions, finishes, and structural procedures. Ultimately, following this intensive investigation into the traditional butaque and its many uses in different contexts, Porset made ergonomic adjustments and adapted the dimensions of the chair to modern ideals of comfort and beauty.

Clara Porset. Butaque. c. 1957. Laminated wood and woven wicker

While the great diversity of furnishings made by Porset is well known, chairs were a particular formal and conceptual preoccupation within her production. This is evidenced by the article she published in 1951 in the prestigious US magazine Arts & Architecture. In “Chairs by Clara Porset,” the designer lays out the goals of her work and declares that her production is known for its Mexican spirit because that is the effect she is looking for: she designs for Mexicans, Porset says, taking into account their characteristic physical traits, and seeks to produce forms that relate to their context and that come as close as possible to meeting their needs.² In the article, she notes that the majority of her furnishings are made by hand; the forms respond to tradition but also to the materials available and the skills of the artisans. This meant that production was limited and hence the costs were high. These aspects shed light on Porset’s scarce production and why, with few exceptions, architects with large-budget projects were her principal clients.³

Iterations of the butaque are found throughout Mexico; the chair is now recognized as an essential part of the country’s mestizo heritage. Anonymous and regional variants were developed, as were authorial versions by prominent designers.

Francisco Zúñiga. Evelia in a Butaque. 1977. Charcoal and crayon on paper

While Porset was not the first designer in Mexico to reconsider the butaque, she was the one who took the idea furthest, with profound reflections and decisive transformations. In the late 1930s designer William Spratling (born in the United States but based in Taxco, Guerrero) set up a carpentry and furniture studio where he produced and sold reinterpretations of colonial furnishings, such as clergymen’s chairs and butaques, high tables with carved pedestals, and low tables with calfskin covers and forged-iron studs. Spratling made numerous versions of the butaque; some were lower and wider than the traditional form, others had an openwork heart on the upper part of the chair’s back.

Fabien Cappello. Tropical chair. 2017. Metal, tule, and foam upholstered in cowhide with fur

Other designers who had settled in Mexico—such as Michael van Beuren with his San Miguelito and San Miguel chairs, and Don Shoemaker with the Sloucher chair—created iterations of the butaque and integrated them into their commercial production lines. And native Mexican designers such as Alejandro Rangel Hidalgo and the architect Manuel Parra also borrowed from the butaque form to create iconic chairs in their own production. Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, many contemporary Mexican and Mexico-based designers have continued to turn to the butaque typology as a basis for playful, formal, and identitarian exercises with the aim of exploring a distinctively Mexican design—see for example works by Fabien Cappello, Ricardo Casas, Laura Noriega, Juskani Alonso, and Moisés Hernández. In other regions of the continent, designers such as the Venezuelan-Italian Bernardo Mazzei have created pieces in homage to Porset.

Want to read more? Pick up a copy of Clara Porset: Butaque in the One on One series. You can also find a butaque chair at momastore.org.

Clara Porset’s Butaque is on view in the exhibition Crafting Modernity: Design in Latin America, 1940–1980 through September 22, 2024.