Oscar Niemeyer Ebonized Ash, Leather "Rio" Chaise Longue Manufactured by Fasem

Oscar Niemeyer Ebonized Ash, Leather "Rio" Chaise Longue Manufactured by Fasem

Offered for sale is an Oscar Niemeyer (Brazil, 1907-2012) ebonized ash and leather "Rio" chaise longue designed in 1978 and manufactured in Italy by Fasem International c2022. This wonderful rocking chaise is an iconic design from the famous Brazilian architect and designer.

Oscar Niemeyer made modernist architecture sexy. In his signature designs, such as those for the planned capital city of Brasília, Niemeyer created a distinctively buoyant architectural vocabulary of sweeping curves, flowing lines, and organic forms (attributes that also characterize his seductive furniture). As expressions of faith in the power of modern architecture and design to foster progress, Niemeyer’s buildings have a kind of heroic poetry. “I am not attracted to straight angles or to the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man,” Niemeyer would write in his memoirs. “I am attracted to free-flowing sensual curves.”

In the early 1970s, Niemeyer began collaborating on furniture designs with his daughter, Anna Maria Niemeyer. Their best-known pieces are seating furniture — the Alta lounge chair and ottoman and the Rio rocking chaise, which have flowing bases made of sheets of lacquered wood or stainless steel, share the aesthetics of Niemeyer’s architecture.