MASP 7th April Chair by Lina Bo Bardi, 1947
About the Item
- Creator:Lina Bo Bardi (Artist)
- Dimensions:Height: 34.45 in (87.51 cm)Width: 18.12 in (46.03 cm)Depth: 23.04 in (58.53 cm)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1947
- Condition:Repaired. Reupholstered. Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:São Paulo, BR
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU8505235619252
Lina Bo Bardi
The Italian-born Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi came to imbue the pure and lofty if somewhat bloodless tenets of modern design with the warm and earthy character of her adopted homeland.
Bardi was born in Rome and graduated in 1939 from the Università degli studi di Roma “La Sapienza” with a degree in architecture. She moved to Milan, worked with Gio Ponti, among other modernist luminaries, and began a career in design journalism. Bardi served as an editor for Ponti’s groundbreaking magazine, Domus, and in 1945 traveled for the publication throughout Italy with a photographer, documenting the physical destruction wrought by World War II.
Bardi moved to Brazil in 1947 with her husband, art dealer and critic Pietro Maria Bardi. There Pietro helped establish the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) while his wife resumed her work in journalism and soon launched her architectural practice. Her first building project was designing a house for herself and her husband on a hillside in what were then the outskirts of São Paulo.
Built in 1951 and known as Casa de Vidro (or Glass House), it is a glass-walled box set on slim steel columns, inspired equally by the Bauhaus and Le Corbusier. Its interiors, with their mid-century furnishings, folk-art pieces and ethnographic curios, are reminiscent of those of Charles and Ray Eames’ house in California. (Bardi also created the interiors of the original MASP and was a natural choice to design the second museum when the institution had outgrown its first home.)
As a furniture designer, Bardi demonstrated flair from the start. The Bowl chair, designed in 1951 but not manufactured until Italian furniture maker Arper recently issued it, is a marvel of versatility. The seat can be swiveled to satisfy any attitude of repose or dismounted to serve as a rocking baby crib. That same year, she made the throne-like Bola de Latão chair, which in place of arms has stanchions topped by brass balls. Its slung leather seat and backrest have unfinished edges secured with lacing, giving the piece an artisanal, perhaps even sexual, air.
In the late 1950s and early ’60s, Bardi designed cushioned chairs with wooden frames whose softened angularity recalls the work of Pierre Jeanneret and Marcel Breuer’s 1938 furniture designs for Bryn Mawr College. But Bardi’s furniture construction and aesthetic sensibilities evolved in tandem with her populist principles. Her embrace of Brazil’s social mosaic was most fully expressed in her last major project, and her masterpiece: a combined cultural and recreational center in São Paulo known as the SESC Pompéia.
Built in stages between 1977 and ’82, the complex has as its core a renovated drum factory. In it, Bardi — to use architectural parlance — created a nonhierarchical environment, with equal prominence and care given to areas as disparate as theaters, sports facilities and places for old folks to sit and gossip or play chess.
Bardi’s last chairs, designed for the center, are built of solid wood, sturdy and durable with simple and graceful forms. They seem to suggest that the most interesting thing about a piece of furniture should be the person using it.
Find vintage Lina Bo Bardi furniture on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Barra Funda, Brazil
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 14 days of delivery.
- Chapel Chair by Rafael TriboliLocated in São Paulo, BRThe mahogany creations are molded in grinders, sawn, and polished by hand. The rustic and manual process collides with wax’s subtle and metamorphic matter, which is blended and diffu...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Brazilian Chairs
MaterialsMahogany
- Chapel Chair by Rafael TriboliLocated in São Paulo, BRRafael Triboli presents his new collection. This newly curated ensemble showcases a distinctive blend of materials and textures, including bronze and gr...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Brazilian Chairs
MaterialsBronze
- Palm Chair by Rafael TriboliLocated in São Paulo, BRMatter whatsoever is not just what it once was as engravings and cutouts reclaim their possible outcomes through the practice of Rafael Triboli, and som...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Brazilian Chairs
MaterialsSteel, Zinc
- Chapel Chair by Rafael TriboliLocated in São Paulo, BRRafael Triboli presents his new collection. This newly curated ensemble showcases a distinctive blend of materials and textures, including bronze and gr...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Brazilian Chairs
MaterialsBronze
- Chapel Chair by Rafael TriboliLocated in São Paulo, BREngravings and cutouts reclaim their potential outcomes through the practice of Rafael Triboli. Something that was once wood, steel, tin, or brass now r...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Brazilian Chairs
MaterialsMahogany
- Chapel Chair by Rafael TriboliLocated in São Paulo, BRThe mahogany creations are molded in grinders, sawn, and polished by hand. The rustic and manual process collides with wax’s subtle and metamorphic matter, which is blended and diffu...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Brazilian Chairs
MaterialsMahogany
- "Masp 7th Abril" Chair, by Lina Bo Bardi, 1947, Mid-Century BrazilianBy Lina Bo BardiLocated in New York, NYThis iconic chair was designed by the Italian-born Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi (1914-1992) for the MASP's auditorium when it still was placed on 7th April street...Category
Vintage 1940s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsLeather, Rosewood
- MASP Auditorium Chair by Lina Bo BardiBy Lina Bo BardiLocated in Houston, TXMASP Auditorium Chair 1948 /re-edited started 2015 The MASP (São Paulo Museum of Art) is well known for its headquarters, a 1968 concrete and glass structure designed by Lina Bo Bar...Category
2010s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsLeather, Wood
- Lina Bo Bardi, One Chair "Girafa"By Lina Bo BardiLocated in PARIS, FRIn 1986, Marcelo Ferraz and Marcelo Suzuki teamed up with Lina Bo Bardi to work on a series of projects in Salvador, such as the Casa do Benin restaurant and the Teatro Gregório de M...Category
2010s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsHardwood
- lina bo bardi giraffe stoolBy Lina Bo BardiLocated in 東御市, JPgiraff stool manufactured by Baraúna designed by Lina Bo Bardi. This carbon version is not normally sold. It was probably created as a prototype. So it means early product.Category
1990s Brazilian Modern Chairs
MaterialsHardwood
- Girafa Chair by Lina Bo Bardi , 2024, Marcenaria BaraúnaBy Lina Bo BardiLocated in Edogawa-ku Tokyo, JPDesign:Lina Bo Bardi, Marcelo Ferraz, Marcelo Suzuki Material:Tauari Design for the restaurant at the "House of Benin" in Salvador, Brazil. The "House of Benin" is an institution de...Category
Antique 1880s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsWood
- Frei Egídio Chair by Lina Bo Bardi , 2022, Marcenaria BaraúnaBy Lina Bo BardiLocated in Edogawa-ku Tokyo, JPDesign:Lina Bo Bardi, Marcelo Ferraz, Marcelo Suzuki Material:Solid Pine This chair was designed by Lina Bo Baldi, Marcelo Ferras, and Marcelo Suzuki for the Teatro Gregório de Mattos in Salvador...Category
Vintage 1980s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsPine, Wood