Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Oscar Niemeyer made modernist architecture sexy. In his signature designs, such as those for the planned capital city of Brasília, Niemeyer created a distinctively buoyant architectural vocabulary of sweeping curves, flowing lines and organic forms (attributes that also characterize his seductive furniture). As expressions of faith in the power of modern architecture and design to foster progress, Niemeyer’s buildings have a kind of heroic poetry.
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho was born to an upper-middle-class family in Rio de Janeiro. (His father was a graphic designer.) While in graduate school, Niemeyer began working for Lúcio Costa, one of the few modernist architects working in Brazil in the 1930s. Niemeyer would be assigned to the design team for a new building in Rio for the Ministry of Education and Health. The famed Swiss-born French architect Le Corbusier was hired as a consultant on the project, and through him Niemeyer would absorb many lessons in bringing a sense of structural lightness to large buildings — though he would never embrace the geometric forms espoused by Le Corbusier and the members of the Bauhaus.
“I am not attracted to straight angles or to the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man,” Niemeyer would write in his memoirs. “I am attracted to free-flowing sensual curves.”
Nowhere would Niemeyer demonstrate his love of curvature more expressively and elegantly than in his designs for the principal buildings for Brasília, a project begun in 1956. The dramatic Congressional Palace features two stark towers flanked by a domed structure and a bowl-shaped edifice, for the upper and lower legislative houses. He placed the Palácio da Alvorada (the presidential residence) on a small peninsula jutting into a lake, so that the sequence of parabolic columns on its facade casts a mirror image on the water. Niemeyer’s grandest achievement was the city’s cathedral, a stunning composition of 16 arched vertical supports with tinted-glass interstices.
Four years after Brasília was completed, in 1960, Brazil’s elected government was overthrown in a military coup. Niemeyer, a member of the Communist party, was harassed continually by the junta. He left the country and did not return until democracy was restored, in 1985.
While in exile, in the early 1970s, Niemeyer began collaborating on furniture designs with his daughter, Anna Maria Niemeyer. Their best known pieces are seating furniture — the Alta lounge chair and ottoman and the Rio rocking chaise, which have flowing bases made of sheets of lacquered wood or stainless steel, share the aesthetics of Niemeyer’s architecture.
The Alta’s deep, oversized seat pads nod — much like the chair designs of Niemeyer’s countryman Sergio Rodrigues — to the Brazilian penchant for long, languorous conversations. Examples of both designs are priced at about $20,000, depending on age, condition and materials. As you will see on these pages, Oscar Niemeyer’s furniture designs are sleek, sculptural, comfortable and elegant — as well as a compact emblem of the work of one of the great architects of our time.
Find vintage Oscar Niemeyer lounge chairs, tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.
2010s Italian Modern Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Leather, Ash
1990s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Leather, Hardwood
1970s French Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Steel
1970s Brazilian Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Leather, Plywood
1970s French Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Steel
1970s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Leather, Cane, Wood
Late 20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Steel
1970s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Cane, Hardwood, Lacquer
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Stainless Steel
1970s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Steel
1970s French Modern Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Steel
2010s Italian Modern Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Leather, Wood
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Stainless Steel
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Walnut
1970s Brazilian Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Steel
1970s Brazilian Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Stainless Steel
1970s French Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Steel
1960s American Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Fir
Mid-20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Stainless Steel
Mid-20th Century Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Rattan, Wood
1990s Brazilian Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Upholstery, Rosewood
Late 20th Century Brazilian Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Upholstery, Wood
1970s Brazilian Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Stainless Steel
21st Century and Contemporary Spanish Modern Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Hide, Ash
1980s Italian Post-Modern Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Portuguese Mid-Century Modern Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Brass
2010s American Modern Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Upholstery
2010s American Modern Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Wool, Synthetic, Faux Leather
1970s Italian Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Chrome
Late 20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Steel
Early 2000s French Modern Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Fabric, Ebony
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Leather
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Upholstery, Walnut
1960s Mid-Century Modern Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Metal
1980s Spanish Post-Modern Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Metal, Brass
Mid-20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Stainless Steel
1980s Italian Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Steel
1970s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Cane, Plywood, Leather
Mid-20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Stainless Steel
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Faux Leather, Walnut
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Faux Leather, Walnut
1970s Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Metal
1970s Italian Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Steel
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Leather, Plexiglass
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Metal
1970s French Futurist Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Leather
1970s French Modern Vintage Oscar Niemeyer Seating
Stainless Steel