The Collectors Essentials

In this online exhibition, we gather pieces that carry unique features of modern Brazilian design. Telling its history is also to disseminate Brazilian history. That's why we called it essential.

Different visions of Modern design can be perceived when comparing the production of three of the pioneers in Brazilian design: Lina Bo Bardi (1914-1992), Joaquim Tenreiro (1906-1992), and Geraldo de Barros (1923-1998).

The first one, an Italo-Brazilian architect raised and educated in Rome (1939), Lina Bo Bardi was a friend of Bruno Zevi and other Italian masters. Lina believed in the industry as a vehicle for the democratization of modern ideas, and she brought Brazilian culture, territory, and history to her designs. Even though Lina wasn't part of the remarkable symposium "What is Happening to Modern Architecture?" (1947) at the MoMA with the head figures of the architecture of the moment – Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Walter Gropius, Breuer, and others – her ideas were in consonance with the international movement. Her production on architecture and critical texts on Habitat magazine shared the view that there's not one universal solution for architecture and design; each project needs to respond to the local environment and society.

Born in Melo, Portugal, Joaquim Tenreiro (1906-1992) started working with wood when he was eight years old, following in his father's footsteps. Tenreiro also believed that furniture production should reflect the climate and local materials. But unlike most of his colleagues, he thought that handcraft work was irreplaceable in high-quality furniture making. His clients were not only an economic elite but also intellectuals. Tenreiro once said in an interview: " it is a crime to make a bad chair out of rosewood " reflecting how precious his relation with raw materials.

Born in the countryside of São Paulo state, Geraldo de Barros was twenty-two years old when he began his studies in drawing and painting at the Associação Paulista de Belas Artes de São Paulo (1945). He became a multi-artist and was part of many vanguard groups such as Grupo Ruptura, Grupo XV, Grupo Rex. De Barros believed in uniting social changes through furniture production. At Unilabor, Geraldo designed structures, frames, and simple elements to be combined and compose different pieces of furniture, ensuring the rationalization of production. Much more than the industry itself, Geraldo believed in the workers and the social impact of the design.

Amongst these iconic designers, some companies marked this moment in Brazilian design as well. One that changed the Brazilian design scene in the 1950s was Moveis Artesanal, created by the Italian Carlo Hauner (1927-1996). With a unique gallery space in São Paulo, Galeria Móveis Artesanal succeeded in communicating its modern aesthetics. Martin Eisler (1913-1977) joined the company as a partner, and many of their most well-known pieces were designed by him. Móveis Artesanal and its successor, Forma S.A. Móveis e Objetos de Arte, were very present in modern houses built in the 1950s and magazine publications, representing covers like no other company. Less political and worried about cultural approaches, Forma S.A. pieces carry almost the same level of craftsmanship as Tenreiro but are more connected with international production.

It is crucial to mention that the pieces designed by Carlo Hauner and Martin Eisler had a short time production (1950-1961) when compared to the forty years that Forma lasted in the market - always selling desirable and high-quality products. After 1961 the company became the official manufacturer of Knoll products in Brazil, sourcing pieces to many institutions and companies all over Brazil.

One thing that is not widely known is that at the time, the recently formed and young architect Sergio Rodrigues (1927-2014) was part of the interior design sector of Móveis Artesanal. Inspired by the success in São Paulo, Rodrigues opened a branch of the company in Curitiba, following the same principles of the São Paulo store. After six months, only one sofa was sold. Two years later, Sergio opened in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, his own store Oca (1955), to sell his designs and a few pieces by Forma. Rodrigues's furniture pieces were present in many modern houses in Rio de Janeiro, and the construction of Brasilia – a modernist city like Chandigarh – was a turning point in his career and company. Oca production hit scale and had commercial resellers all over Brazil, and even in Carmel, California (1965-1968). One of his faithful clients, Adolpho Bloch (1908-1995), owner of the Brazilian publisher Bloch Editors, hired Oca to furnish his recently constructed buildings. Rodrigues designed a chair for the dining room of TV Manchete, which we present here as Bloch chair, a commission to this project.

A necessary name to finish our list is Jorge Zalszupin (1922-2020), a Poland-born Brazilian who worked as an architect, designer, entrepreneur, and manager. His company L'atelier was an example of a transition from the artisanal production mode, with unique and custom pieces, to serial industrial production during the 1960s and 1970s. Jorge was always very interested in new technologies and materials, developing new techniques to materialize his curved free ideas. To keep investing in technologies, he had to increase sales and production flow. For this, Zalszupin developed a line of modular furniture to serve both residential and corporate environments. His aesthetic solution of rosewood patchwork was a turning point in this process:

“I thought about combining several patterns of rosewood, lighter, darker, with different types of veins, that is, creating a new pattern so that all desks would integrate with each other, hence the idea of the rosewood patchwork [...]. It was a technique that we developed and that helped to produce furniture industrially with sophisticated marquetry. I started using this new pattern on other furniture pieces [...]. At some point, we had a complete line that, by the way, was very successful at the time."

-Jorge Zalszupin

The selection below is not a definitive list of Brazilian design icons. The icons' establishment is related to intricate values, and nothing about design history can be conclusive – good design research is constantly expanding. The Collectors Essentials seeks to provide an overview of the history of Brazilian design through the names we consider key to understanding furniture production in Brazil, presenting a selection that reflects the view of the designers on their creations.

Isabela Milagre

Brazilian design researcher and curator