- Manufacturer
- Unilabor
Brazil, São Paulo, 1954-1967 - Title
- Shelving Unit MF 710 (Estante MF 710)
- Date Made
- 1954
- Medium
- Iron, plywood veneered with white Formica and rosewood
- Dimensions
- 60 5/8 × 16 15/16 × 78 3/4 in. (154 × 43 × 200 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2020.73a-d
- Collecting Area
- Latin American Art
- Curatorial Notes
Geraldo de Barros was a pioneer of Brazilian Concrete art, photography, and design. In 1954, he cofounded the utopian cooperative Unilabor on the outskirts of São Paulo to build modern furniture designs through serial production and collective decision making. Shelving Unit MF 710 exemplifies Unilabor’s production system. The “MF” in the unit’s name designates the two main materials: wood (madeira) and iron (ferro). Customers were able to select from standardized, modular components and customize their design in the store at the time of purchase, allowing for flexibility and personalization. This shelving unit includes Unilabor’s signature Formica drawers and jacaranda-laminate cabinets (a combination of industrial materials and local woods), while the planes and shapes recall de Barros’s Concrete paintings and abstract photographs (M.2020.255).
A founding member of the Grupo Ruptura, which was formed in São Paulo in 1952 to promote geometric abstraction, de Barros’s interests in Concrete art and Gestalt theory (which privileges the whole over its parts) extended across his multidisciplinary practice. Following an exhibition of his groundbreaking photographs at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand in January 1951, he received a fellowship to travel to Europe to further his studies. There he encountered Max Bill (1908–1994) and the Hochschule für Gestaltung (School of Design) in Ulm, which proved foundational for the development of his own ideas of Concrete art and design.
Rachel Kaplan
2024