Don Shoemaker

Don Shoemaker was born in Nebraska. In the 1930´s he studied painting at the Fine Arts Institute in Chicago. He moved to Mexico in the late 1940´s. He settled down in a small town, Santa María de Guido, in the state of Michoacan, Mexico.
Don began the manufacture of his furniture in tropical precious woods and other wood products. What started as a little factory in the late 1950´s became a large industry employing more than a hundred skilled craftsmen. Soon Shoemaker became an important milestone of the economic and cultural life of Michoacan.
Don S. Shoemaker produced pieces of furniture for showrooms in Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston and large cities in Mexico. His designs were extremely popular in Mexico. In the 1970’s, Don experimented with linear designs and challenged the traditional boundaries of functional design, creating the “Diamond Line”. His series became iconic and widely reproduced.
Shoemaker remains the designer most representative of Mexican modernism in furniture design.

Submitted by Jason Jacques Gallery