Joaquim Tenreiro Curva chairs set of 8 Brazil 1961

About the Item

Highly rare and sought after ‘Curva’ chairs designed by Joaquim Tenreiro and manufactures by his own company Tenreiro Movèis & Decorações, Brazil 1961. Tenreiro was a sculptor, painter, engraver and designer, born into a family of joiners. By the late 1940s, the modern movement had taken hold in Brazil, and Tenreiro’s pieces with a more modern sensibility became increasingly popular. These chairs one of the most recognizable designs from his hand, are called ‘Cadeira Curva’, in English translated to Curved chair which obviously relates to the curved back of the design. The curved back rest supported by sixteen spines is a fantastic work of art. The delicate looking but firm construction of the chairs is truly astonishing. These chairs were conceived according to Tenreiro’s principle that Brazilian furniture should be light, in his words, “lightness, has nothing to do with the weight itself, but with grace and functionality”. Tenreiro’s deep knowledge of wood is illustrated through the poetic features in his lines. In these chairs’ seats, the designer explored the weaving of cane, which evokes indigenous braiding and basketry. The use of wood and natural fibres is generally associated with the need to adapt furniture to a tropical climate; however, the aesthetic became popular in the mid-century all over Europe as well. These chairs are composed very organic and present straight lines and geometric elements, creating a structure that is simple, but exquisite. The chairs are in very good original condition and the solid rosewood structure has an amazing patina. The chairs has original old rubber feet which are also shown in some references by Tenreiro, they can be removed if wanted. We are not 100% sure if the cane seating is the original one, it surely is very old, at least 30 years. To protect this ‘original’ and old cane, we advise the chairs being used with a cushion. The chairs are priced and sold in a set of 8.

Creator:
Joaquim Tenreiro (Designer)
Design:
Cadeira Curva Chair
Dimensions:
Height: 32.29 in (82 cm)Width: 20.48 in (52 cm)Depth: 20.08 in (51 cm)Seat Height: 16.15 in (41 cm)
Sold As:
Set of 8
Style:
Mid-Century Modern (In the Style Of)
Materials and Techniques:
Cane,Rosewood
Place of Origin:
Brazil
Period:
1960-1969
Date of Manufacture:
1961
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Roosendaal, NL
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU933035152262
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Joaquim Tenreiro

The Portugese-born furniture designer Joaquim Tenreiro was a pioneer of modernism in Brazil, where his work paved the way for the successes of such mid-20th-century design greats as Sergio Rodrigues, Jorge Zalszupin, and Lina Bo Bardi, an Italian-Brazilian architect whose futuristic São Paulo buildings are only part of her legacy.

Tenreiro’s vintage tables, chairs and storage cabinets are known for their simplicity of line and an elegance that is enhanced by the use of richly grained South American hardwoods such as jacaranda and imbuia.

Tenreiro’s father and grandfather were both master woodworkers, under whom he trained in the craft. He had artistic leanings and in the late 1920s enrolled as a university student at the School of Arts and Crafts in Rio de Janeiro, where he joined a group of upstart modernists protesting the staid, retrograde curriculum at the college. At the time, Brazil was culturally mired in a 19th-century mindset that was reflected in an upper-class preference for academic painting and reproduction furnishings in antique European styles. But the progressive spirit that Tenreiro and his colleagues fostered slowly gained force.

With the terms “lightness” and “functionality” as his bywords, Tenreiro opened a furniture-design business in 1943, where one of his first clients was the legendary architect Oscar Niemeyer. The arrival of Brazil’s first democratically elected government, in 1945, lent modernism official sanction, which culminated in the construction of the new capital, Brasília. Tenreiro eventually stepped away from design in the late 1960s to devote his time to sculpture and painting.

To appreciate how revolutionary Tenreiro’s work seemed, one must imagine the heavy, ornately carved, deeply varnished furniture that was the standard for top-end Brazilian interior design in the 1930s. Tenreiro’s chairs and sofas employed slender, softly angular frames that were only lightly stained to highlight the grains of the local woods. He preferred chairs and chaises with caned seats and backrests that “breathe” in the tropical climate, and as a carpenter and joiner he wanted to show off the beauty of Brazilian wood.

Two versions of a three-legged side chair introduced in 1947 serve as a veritable manifesto for a new age in Brazilian design: Using the stack-lamination technique, Tenreiro bonded together a gently contoured seat made of alternating layers of different-colored native woods to produce a magnificent stripe effect. These chairs, like all Tenreiro works, demonstrate the enduring power of simple design and superb construction — with a teaspoon of flair.

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