José Zanine Caldas Seating

José Zanine Caldas, hand-sculpted chair, model ‘Pilão’, Brazilian hardwood, Brazil, 1975 This exquisite hand-carved chair exemplifies the core principles embodied by José Zanine Cal...

Jose Zanine Caldas A self-taught artist, designer and architect, Jose Zanine Caldas (1919-2001) was born on the southern coast of Bahia in Brazil. At age twenty, he opened an archi...

José Zanine Caldas (1919-2001) was a self-taught artist, designer and architect from Brazil. For over 10 years he ran a workshop specializing in architectural scale models, where he ...

This plywood and imitation leather chair is a testimony to the creativity of José Zanine Caldas in the 1950s. The choice of plywood that he particularly likes during this decade all...

A stool made of a hollow trunk designed by José Zanine Caldas, manufactured in his own workshop in Nova Vicosa, Brazil 1979. Made from a solid hardwood trunk with a stunning original patina. Finished with transparent lacquer. It can also serve as a side table. The sculpted conical shape is created by hollowing out a log, making it an interesting and versatile piece of furniture. Comes with Caldas certificate. The Denuncia series by José Zanine Caldas, to which the trunk stool...

Pair of armchairs, 1954 Lacquered wood, fabric upholstery 66 x 64 x 78h cm 26 x 25.19 x 30.7h in

The "N" armchairs by Zanine Caldas stand as quintessential artifacts of mid-20th century modern Brazilian design, each piece retaining its original upholstery. These chairs are a tes...

Very rare and early version of the famous Pilao chair designed by Jose Zanine Caldas, made in his own workshop in Nova Vicosa, Brazil 1978. Compared to other Pilao chairs, this one i...

Mid-Century Modern 'Linha Z' Lounge Sofa by José Zanine Caldas, Brazil, 1950s This 'Linha Z' sofa, made of solid wood structure, and upholstered with fabric, stands out with its arc...

A set of armchairs designed by Jose Zanine Caldas for his studio 'Moveis Artisticos Z' in 1950. Brazilian midcentury design. Made with solid wood, reu...

Zanine Caldas is a revered figure in the realm of Brazilian mid-century design. Born in 1919 in Belmonte, Bahia, Brazil, he went on to carve a niche for himself through his innovativ...

Pair of unique iron chairs in a “spaghetti” style seating by Zanine Caldas. Extremely rare. The seating structure was composed of a circular iron bar with pillow over the springs. Za...

This "Scissors" chair, created by Brazilian designer José Zanine Caldas, embodies both the modern aesthetic and the ingenuity of Brazilian design. Made in the 1950s, this piece refle...

Size: H 26.5” x W 14” x D 16” x SH 16” These chairs were designed and executed by Jose Zanine Caldas during his time as the lead designer of “Moveis Artisticos Z''. The frame is in ...

A pair of green velvet and pau marfim wood "Kid" lounge chairs designed by José Zanine Caldas and produced by Móveis Artisticos Z, Brazil, 1950s. 17“ seat height

A pair of Pau Marfim wood and brown beige mohair "Kid" armchairs designed by José Zanine Caldas and produced by Móveis Artisticos Z, Brazil, 1950s. 17” seat height

José Zanine Caldas, hand-sculpted chair, Brazilian hardwood (Vinhático), Brazil, 1980s This exceptional hand carved chair embodies everything that José Zanine Caldas stood for: love...

José Zanine Caldas for Móveis Artísticos Z factory, high back lounge chair, reupholstered in green mohair, lacquered wood, Brazil, circa 1950 This armchair is designed by the estee...

This beautiful set of three Brazilian modern stools was designed by Jose Zanine Caldas in the seventies. The stools are completely made out of Pequi hardwood and the top and bottom a...

Available right now, this Brazilian modern iconic chaise lounge in marina plywood, cord, and fabric, designed by Jose Zanine Caldas for Moveis Z in the 50s, is nothing less than spec...

Restored.

Available right now, this Brazilian Modern armchair in wood & mint faux leather by Jose Zanine Caldas, in the fifties decade is gorgeous! This Brazilian Modern rarity consists of ...

Available today, this gorgeous and super comfortable Mid-century Armchair in Wood & Green Faux Leather designed by Jose Zanine Caldas in the fifties is gorgeous! This one-of-a-kin...

Awesome unique chairs by Zanine! In true 1950s style, these rare and unique pieces are testimony of the genius of Zanine, a self taught artist who kept innovating and pushing bar...

The "Zeca" chair was created in the early 1960s by a Brazilian designer José Zanine Caldas (1918-2001) for Móveis Artísticos Z, a factory he founded in São José dos Campos in 1948. This pair of armchairs has been recently reupholstered in cream-colored bouclé fabric and features a signature plywood frame of organic shape. Literature: Movel Moderno Brasileiro...

A pair of beautiful armchairs designed by José Zanine Caldas from Brazil. Reupholstered with light pink colored fabric. Very good vintage condition.

A chaise longue designed by José Zanine Caldas for Mòveis Artísticos Z, Brazil, in 1949. It features marina plywood, cord, and fabric. Present example was exhibited in Galería Mi...

This characteristic “Zeca” armchair was designed by the pioneering Brazilian designer, Jose Zanine Caldas. Made of solid wood, this armchair was named af...

Hand-sculpted chair by José Zanine Caldas, Circa 1970s. This chair was made of Brazilian hard wood. Signed "Zanine". A self-taught designer, José Zanine Caldas is known to transform wood into magnificently sensual pieces. In 1964, when Brazil was undergoing a military coup, he lost his position at the University of Brasilia and took refuge in the beach town of Nova Viçosa. There he faced the destruction of the Atlantic Forest. Inspired by local craftsmen who carved boats and furniture from fallen trees, he began carving solid furniture...

Armchairs called 'H Armchair' designed by Brazilian architect and designer José Zanine Caldas for Mòveis Artisticos Z in 1950s. Reupholstered with...

A lounge chair designed by José Zanine Caldas for Mòveis Artísticos Z, Brazil, in 1949. It features Imbuia plywood, brass, and black-dyed leather w...

A lounge chair designed by José Zanine Caldas for Mòveis Artísticos Z, Brazil, in 1949. It features Imbuia plywood, brass, and black-dyed leather webbing.  

This beloved José Zanine Caldas lounge chair from the “Linha Z” or “Z Line” is an exceptional example of Brazilian design of the 1950s. The design dates to 1949, The woven leather straps and the organic shape is unmatched. This chair model is made of plywood and features a distinctive shape, distinguished by its legs. The legs and arms are connected and form one unit and their shape inspired the name of the line, “Linea Z...

Zanine Caldas midcentury Brazilian "Zanine 1-12" chair in ivory wood, 1949 Exposing the most famous design of Zanine Caldas, this model of chair is all built in ivory wood and the...

Pair of armchairs by Zanine Caldas. Brazil, 1950s. Wood, fabric upholstery. Measures: 46 × 50 × H 74 cm, 18 × 20 × H 29 in. Please note: Prices do not include VAT. VAT may be appl...

Zanine Caldas midcentury Brazilian armchair, 1949 Plywood armchair designed by Zanine Caldas in the late 1940s for the Móveis Artíst...

JOSE ZANINE DE CALDAS (1919-2001). Pair of armchairs model “H.” Manufactured by Moveis Artísticos Z. Brazil, 1949. Marine plywood, fabric upholstery. Measuremenents 58 cm x 50 cm x 80 H cm. Literature: Habitat, nº9, Sao Paulo 1952. José Zanine Caldas (Belmonte, Bahia, 1918 - Vitória, Espírito Santo, 2001) was an architect and designer. Caldas stands out on the national architecture in Brazil for his exploration of the constructive qualities of Brazilian woods, defining his work with a warm rustic ambience, working on both high-end residential projects and also popular constructions. Never actually training as an architect, he starting working in the 1940s as a designer at Severo & Villares and as a member of the National Artistic Historical Heritage Service (Sphan). He opens a maquet studio in Rio de Janeiro, where he worked between 1941 and 1948, and, at the suggestion of Oswaldo Bratke (1907-1997), moved the studio to São Paulo, from 1949 to 1955. The studio served important modern architects of the two cities, and was responsible for most of the models presented in the book Modern Architecture in Brazil, 1956, by Henrique E. Mindlin (1911-1971).. During the 1940s, he also began developing and researching at the Institute of Technological Research of the University of São Paulo (IPT/USP), and was first introduced to plywood. In 1949, he founded the Fábrica Móveis Artísticos Z, with the objective of producing large-scale industrialized furniture, good quaility and afforable, the furniture was to be materialized using plywood sheets. This method minimized material waste and the need for artisan skills, as the parts were mechanically produced and the use of labor was only needed for the assembling of the furniture. His time at Móveis Artísticos Z, in 1953 was rather short lived and left the company in 1953 and instead worked on landscape projects until 1958 in São Paulo, when he moved to Brasília, where he built his first house, also in 1958, and coordinated the construction of others until 1964. Appointed by Rocha Miranda to Darcy Ribeiro (1922-1997), he joined the University of Brasília (UnB) in 1962 and taught modeling classes until 1964, when he lost his position due to the military coup. He set off and travelled through Latin America and Africa, an experience that had a remarkable effect on his work. On return to Brazil he built his second house, the first of a series of projects in the Joatinga region of Rio de Janeiro. In 1968, he moved to Nova Viçosa, Bahia, and opened a workshop, which ran up until 1980. His experience in the Bahian city was shaped by his renewed love and contact with nature, and he began working closely with environmentalists. In one of these collaborations, he participated in the project of an environmental reserve with the artist Frans Krajcberg (1921-2017) for whom he also designed a studio in 1971. The furniture he designed during this period, is reflective of his ecological sensitivity, his works were constructed with crude logs of wood, whose twisted lines inspire his drawings. It is also in Nova Viçosa that the architect builds the Casa dos Triângulos (1970) and casa da Beira do Rio (1970), in which he adopted a very artisanal construction system with typical woods of the region. According to the historian and architecture critic Roberto Conduru, Caldas' performance was relevant for the diffusion of environmental values in architectural projects: a "taste for the alternative and the rustic was disseminated throughout the Brazilian territory [...], encouraged by environmental preservation campaigns, by the wear and tear of the current models in reinforced concrete and by the re-emergence of the regionalist ideal in the international panorama"1. Between 1970 and 1978, he kept an office in Rio de Janeiro, where he returned in 1982. In 1975, the filmmaker Antonio Carlos da Fontoura made the film Arquitetura de Morar, about the houses of Joatinga, with a soundtrack by Tom Jobim (1927-1993), for whom Caldas designed a house. Two years later, the architect's work was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro (MAM/RJ), at the São Paulo Museum of Art Assis Chateaubriand (Masp) in Belo Horizonte, and the following year at Solar do Unhão, in Salvador. Between 1980 and 1982 The Helium House Olga Jr was designed and built in São Paulo. Caldas outlined the plans for the construction sourcing the all the wood, the actual assembly of the house was carried out by the owner. The house, is defined by wooden structure that stands out from the fence walls, the clay tile roof of wide eaves and the demolition materials that give the building the feeling of rusticity, warmth and nostalgia. The house was similar to those built in the 1970s for Eurico Ficher and Pedro Valente, in Joatinga. In 1983, Calders founded the Center for the Development of Applications of The Woods of Brazil (DAM), and gave it to UnB in 1985. During this period, he proposed the creation of the Escola do Fazer, a teaching center focused on the use of wood for the construction of houses, furniture and utilitarian objects for the low-income population. Despite the fact that much of Calders early work was centered around building houses for the elite, in the 1980s the designer dedicates himself the DAM where he rigorously researches popular housing based on artisan construction processes and whereby the users participate in the construction process. At the Brasília unit, he developed prototypes of popular houses with eucalyptus logs as a structure and sealing in soil-cement, betting on an ideal of self-construction already tested at Casa do Nilo, in São Gonçalo, Rio de Janeiro. From that moment on, as occurred with his the furniture designs, Caldas adopts the use of crude wood logs rolled...

This midcentury sofa, in wood and grey fabric, was produced in the 1950s in São Paulo by Zanine's studio, is a good example of his earlier pieces. José Zanine Caldas was a designer,...

Sculptural bench by Jose Zanine Caldas made in Pequi wood.

A Brazilian hardwood armchair by José Zanine Caldas with paddle arms and his signature angular lines. The wood has been refinished and is in excellent condition. The upholstery is i...

Set of 5 dining chairs model "I" Manufactured by Mòveis Artísticos Z Brazil, 1950 Solid Brazilian wood, rope Good condition, see pictures.

Armchair designed by José Zanine Caldas, produced by “Móveis Artísticos Z” in São Paulo (Brazil), 1950’s. Original condition, strong plywood struct...

Rare armchairs designed by Jose Zanine Caldas for "Moveis Asrtisticos Z".

Lounge chair in caviona wood with tan leather upholstered seat and backrest. Designed by José Zanine Caldas, Brazil, circa 1960.