- Title
- Unilabor Chairs
- Date Made
- 1954, printed 2005
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions
- Image: 11 1/16 × 11 1/16 in. (28.1 × 28.1 cm); primary support: 11 7/8 × 15 7/8 in. (30.16 × 40.32 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2021.34.1
- Collecting Area
- Photography
- Curatorial Notes
Geraldo de Barros was a pioneer of Brazilian Concrete art, photography, and design. This photograph, which features the signature iron frame chair (M.2021.40.1.3) that he designed for Unilabor, demonstrates his overlapping interests across mediums. The chair itself consists of a sleek iron frame that could be easily manufactured and sold at accessible prices. Rather than make a straight photograph, de Barros focused on the intersecting rods of the chair backs to reference a modernist grid. The interplay of shadows and the overlapping forms (made with multiple exposures on the same negative) emphasize the geometric and sculptural qualities of the object.
De Barros began experimenting with photography in 1946, and in 1949 he joined São Paulo’s Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante, a group of amateur photographers largely credited with introducing modern photography in Brazil. He was a founding member of the Grupo Ruptura, which was formed in São Paulo in 1952 to promote geometric abstraction, and his interests in Concrete art and Gestalt theory (which privileges the whole over its parts) extended across his multidisciplinary practice. In 1954, he cofounded Unilabor, a utopian cooperative that built modern furniture designs through serial production and collective decision making. De Barros applied his Concrete aesthetic to the company’s visual branding and its product lines, including this exemplary chair.
Rachel Kaplan
2024
- Copyright
- © Acervo Instituto Moreira Salles
