Incollect Magazine - Issue 3

Issue 3 90 www.incollect.com Selma Cisic owner of Adesso, visiting at home with Jorge Zalszupin. a beautiful piece of design in their house,” Alcantara says. “He had a very special eye for details and left a legacy of beautiful furniture.” “This mixture of people generated a fascinating artisanal expressiveness” Alcantara muses, referring to the fact that so many talented architects and designers from all over the world lived and worked in Brazil during this period, spurred by European migration following World War II. She is particularly enamored of the designs of Lina Bo Bardi, an Italian-born architect and designer who worked with Gio Ponti in Milan before relocating in 1947 to Brazil. “She didn’t produce furniture in large quantities but her work is substantial and unique”, she says. Her Glass House in Sao Paulo, from 1951, which was her home, is one of her most famous creations, along with various designs for chairs that are much sought after by serious collectors. “Mid-century Brazilian furniture design has never been more in demand than it is now,” says Panayiotou, who believes that for unusual historical reasons it never achieved its deserved popularity and status outside of Brazil at the time. “Brazilian mid-century design had a complicated upbringing,” he explains to me. “Under the various military dictatorships that governed the country from the early 1960s through the 1980s, the exportation of Brazilian furniture was illegal and prohibited. This meant Brazilian furniture design was one of the best-kept secrets in the design world.” Panayiotou says the demand for mid-century furniture has become so great that the minimalist elegance of Zalszupin’s ‘Banco Onda’ bench, ‘Petalas’ coffee tables and side tables are an almost weekly request from interior designers and private clients. “In the ‘Petalas’ series Zalszupin plays with the organic form of flower petals, the geometric form has been interpreted in a poetic way,” he says. “‘Petalas’ tables are captivating due to their clever construction and sensual shape, bringing to mind some of Neimeyer’s architectural forms, for instance, the Palácio da Alvorada in Brasilia.” Another collector favorite and in huge demand is the ‘Mucki’ Bench by Rodrigues, designed in 1958, and today according to Panayiotou “seriously sought after and an absolute showstopper.” The versatile ‘Mucki’ can double as a bench or as a coffee table and was one of the designs produced at Oca, a ‘factory-like’ The MP-51 Armchair by Percival Lafer in Pau Ferro (Brazilian Ironwood) circa 1960s. Photo courtesy Herança Cultural Design Art Gallery.