Wood Mandacaru
21st Century and Contemporary Brazilian Side Tables
Brass
2010s Brazilian Minimalist Figurative Sculptures
Wood
2010s Brazilian Minimalist Figurative Sculptures
Wood
2010s Brazilian Minimalist Figurative Sculptures
Wood
2010s Brazilian Modern Table Lamps
Wood
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21st Century and Contemporary Brazilian Side Tables
Wood
21st Century and Contemporary Brazilian Side Tables
Wood
21st Century and Contemporary Brazilian Side Tables
Wood
2010s Abstract Geometric Abstract Sculptures
Platinum
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
Aluminum, Brass, Copper
21st Century and Contemporary Brazilian Side Tables
Wood
Late 20th Century American Bohemian Floor Lamps
Plaster
21st Century and Contemporary French Gueridon
Marble, Bronze
Vintage 1980s German Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Brass
2010s Abstract Abstract Sculptures
Ceramic
Late 20th Century American Bohemian Figurative Sculptures
Wicker, Cane, Rattan
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Dressers
Chrome
Mid-20th Century European Mid-Century Modern Figurative Sculptures
Cane
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Wall-mounted Sculptures
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Cane, Ash
2010s British Organic Modern Vases
Porcelain
Recent Sales
21st Century and Contemporary Brazilian Benches
On the Origins of Brazil
More often than not, vintage mid-century Brazilian furniture designs, with their gleaming wood, soft leathers and inviting shapes, share a sensuous, unique quality that distinguishes them from the more rectilinear output of American and Scandinavian makers of the same era.
Commencing in the 1940s and '50s, a group of architects and designers transformed the local cultural landscape in Brazil, merging the modernist vernacular popular in Europe and the United States with the South American country's traditional techniques and indigenous materials.
Key mid-century influencers on Brazilian furniture design include natives Oscar Niemeyer, Sergio Rodrigues and José Zanine Caldas as well as such European immigrants as Joaquim Tenreiro, Jean Gillon and Jorge Zalszupin. These creators frequently collaborated; for instance, Niemeyer, an internationally acclaimed architect, commissioned many of them to furnish his residential and institutional buildings.
The popularity of Brazilian modern furniture has made household names of these designers and other greats. Their particular brand of modernism is characterized by an émigré point of view (some were Lithuanian, German, Polish, Ukrainian, Portuguese, and Italian), a preference for highly figured indigenous Brazilian woods, a reverence for nature as an inspiration and an atelier or small-production mentality.
Hallmarks of Brazilian mid-century design include smooth, sculptural forms and the use of native woods like rosewood, jacaranda and pequi. The work of designers today exhibits many of the same qualities, though with a marked interest in exploring new materials (witness the Campana Brothers' stuffed-animal chairs) and an emphasis on looking inward rather than to other countries for inspiration.
Find a collection of vintage Brazilian furniture on 1stDibs that includes chairs, sofas, tables and more.