Pedro Friedeberg at the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City

"I never relax," Pedro Friedeberg insists. "My art is my therapy, my medication." The first major retrospective of the work of the 73-year-old artist will open on Oct. 15 at the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and includes paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture and furniture. Friedeberg’s iconic hand chairs, which he began making in 1962, have been objects of desire for boldface design-world names from Arnold Scaasi to Kelly Wearstler. The Surrealist writer and poet André Breton was also mesmerized by the chair, as were Yul Brynner, Roman Polanski and Jeanne Moreau.