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Brazilian Mobiles and Kinetic Sculptures

BRAZILIAN FURNITURE

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 NiemeyerSergio Rodrigues and José Zanine Caldas as well as such European immigrants as Joaquim TenreiroJean 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 rosewoodjacaranda 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 chairssofastables and more.

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Place of Origin: Brazilian
Abraham Palatnik. Elephant, c. 1960
By Abraham Palatnik
Located in PARIS, FR
Kinetic art - Beautiful and rare polyester resin sculpture from the HOME AND FARM collection representing an elephant signed in the base. c. 1960. This sculpture is part of the seri...
Category

Mid-20th Century Kinetic Brazilian Mobiles and Kinetic Sculptures

Materials

Acrylic

Abraham Palatnik. Op Art Cat Sculpture in Polyester Resin 1970's
By Abraham Palatnik
Located in Sao Paulo, SP
Huge Brazilian modern kinetic sculpture made of acrylic resin designed by Abraham Palatnik, part of Artemis Collection made in the 1970's. This is the biggest version of the aforemen...
Category

1970s Kinetic Vintage Brazilian Mobiles and Kinetic Sculptures

Materials

Resin, Acrylic

Kinetic Sculpture of a Goldfish in Resin by Abraham Palatinik, 1960s
By Abraham Palatnik
Located in New York, NY
This Brazilian modern sculpture was designed by Abraham Palatinik and made in the 1960s. It is a part of the Artemis collection that features hundreds of different animals, each with sleek, flat silhouettes. The goldfish sculpture...
Category

1960s Mid-Century Modern Vintage Brazilian Mobiles and Kinetic Sculptures

Materials

Resin

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Brazilian Modern Kinetic Sculpture of a Cat in Resin, Abraham Palatinik, 1960s
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Available today, this Brazilian Modern Kinetic Sculpture of a Cat in Resin by Abraham Palatinik made in the 1960s is beautiful! This beautiful sculpture is displayed in our showroom on top of a Moveis Cimo chest of drawers, a Giuseppe Scapinelli armchair and the convo looks gorgeous! This is part of the Artemis collection that features hundreds of different animals, each with sleek, flat silhouettes. Original label on bottom. So if you are looking to start a Brazilian Modern sculpture...
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Abraham Palatnik Zebra Lucite Acrylic Sculpture Figurine
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Sculpture by Abraham PALATNIK (1928-2020) Cat, plexiglass. Brazil, 1970s
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Abraham Palatnik, Bird, Kinetic Sculpture in Acrylic Resin, Brazil, circa 1960
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Abraham Palatnik (1928-2020) Bird Sculpture, circa 1960 Polyester resin and pigments. Measures: (21.5 x 9.5 x 2.5 cm) This Polyester resin sculpture representing a bird, in the colors yellow and black It is part of the series of animal sculptures that Abraham Palatnik made from the 1960s, in small format, they are small jewels of kinetic art, a movement that Palatnik was one of the pioneers. "Born in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, in 1928 to a family of Russian Jews, Palatnik moved with his family to Tel Aviv (then Palestine) when he was four years old. He attended Montefiori Technical School, where he specialized in internal combustion engines, and studied art under the tutelage of the painter Haaron Avni and the sculptor Sternshus at the Municipal Institute of Art. When he returned to Brazil in 1948, his output consisted mainly of figurative and landscape paintings and charcoal drawings. However, his encounters with the complex works made by schizophrenic patients at the Pedro II Psychiatric Hospital, where he taught painting workshops alongside Almir Mavignier...
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A Mid-Century Modern Lucite Op Art blue, turquoise and black bird designed by Abraham Palatnik. Abraham Palatnik (born in 1928) is a Brazilian artist and inventor whose innovations i...
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Abraham Palatnik, Elephant, Kinetic Sculpture in Acrylic Resin, Brazil, C. 1960
By Abraham Palatnik
Located in PARIS, FR
Abraham Palatnik (1928-2020) Sculpture "Elephant", c. 1960 Vintage label (made in Brazil). Polyester resin and pigment in black. Kinetic art - Beautiful and rare polyester resin sculpture from the HOME AND FARM collection representing an elephant signed in the base. This sculpture is part of the series of animal sculptures that Abraham Palatnik made from the 1960s, in small format, they are small jewels of kinetic art, a movement of which he was one of the pioneers. "Born in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, in 1928 to a family of Russian Jews, Palatnik moved with his family to Tel Aviv (then Palestine) when he was four years old. He attended Montefiori Technical School, where he specialized in internal combustion engines, and studied art under the tutelage of the painter Haaron Avni and the sculptor Sternshus at the Municipal Institute of Art. When he returned to Brazil in 1948, his output consisted mainly of figurative and landscape paintings and charcoal drawings. However, his encounters with the complex works made by schizophrenic patients at the Pedro II Psychiatric Hospital, where he taught painting workshops alongside Almir Mavignier and Ivan Serpa, caused him to abandon his early approach to traditional image-making: “I decided to start all over from scratch,” Palatnik said. “The discipline from the school, the studio, was no longer of any use.” Freed from the perceived restrictions of his training, Palatnik became closely associated with Grupo Frente, a movement started by Serpa and rooted in geometric abstraction. He used his knowledge of engineering and mechanics as well as his interest in natural forces to build his first Kinechromatic work. Titled Azul e roxo em seu primeiro movimento (Blue and Purple in First Movement), 1949, the piece debuted at the inaugural São Paulo Bienal in 1951. “In reality, it was luck that got me into the biennial,” Palatnik said in a 1986 interview. “At first, my machine was rejected, because it wasn’t a painting, a sculpture, a drawing, or a print.” The piece, which eventually gained entry, shocked the biennial’s grand prize jury, who gave Palatnik an honorable mention, calling his work an “important manifestation of modern art.” By 1969, he had participated in seven more editions of the international exhibition. Palatnik would also present work in the 1964 Venice Biennale, the 1966 Biennial of Córdoba, and the 1997 and 2005 editions of the Mercosul Biennial. His art was featured in significant exhibitions on kinetic art, including “Mouvement 2” (1964) at Denise René gallery in Paris; “Lumière, Mouvement et Optique” (1965) at the Brussels Palace of Fine Arts; “Kinetic Art” (1966) at the Museum of San Francisco; and, more recently, “Delirious: Art at the Limits of Reason, 1950–1980” (2017) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and “The Other Trans-Atlantic: Kinetic & Op Art in Central & Eastern Europe and Latin America 1950s–1970s” (2018) at Sesc Pinheiros in São Paulo. A major retrospective, “Abraham Palatnik—The Reinvention of Painting,” was staged at several venues across Brazil, including the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro (2017); the Fundação Iberê...
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Mid-20th Century Kinetic Brazilian Mobiles and Kinetic Sculptures

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1950s Brazilian Abraham Palatnik Acrylic Owl
1950s Brazilian Abraham Palatnik Acrylic Owl
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H 3.55 in W 1.97 in D 0.79 in
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Set of Three Lucite Owls by Abraham Palatnik, 1970s
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Wonderful set of three Lucite owls, designed by the Brazilian designer Abraham Palatnik, circa 1970s. NOW TEMPORARY DISCOUNT PROMO CODE AVAILABLE, SEND MESSAGE FOR MORE INFORMATION! ...
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