1970's Midcentury Modern Desk in Tubular Chrome & Wood Leaf by Geraldo Barros

This Brazilian Modern desk has a chromed tubular metal base with top and drawers in agglomerated wood and Jacaranda (Brazilian rosewood) leaf. It has 4 floating drawers; keys are available. The wood has been refinished, the metal cleaned up and the overall piece is in excellent condition.

This piece has all the fun aspects of a true bold Mid-Century Modern piece -- clean, angular swooping lines that give the piece an almost googie look that is unmistakably Mid-Century Modern. This desk effortlessly flexes into any Mid-Century Modern, modern or contemporary environment.
This desk was found in a private office in Curitiba (the capital of Parana, a southern state in Brazil) where all the furniture was from Geraldo de Barros for Hobjeto. It was love at first site. Matching file cabinet set is sold separately.
Geraldo de Barros (1923-1998) was one of the key players of the Modernist movement in Brazil in the 1950s. Originally a painter close to the European avant-garde and the Pioneer of abstract photography in Brazil in the 1940s (his works are part of the MoMa collection), Geraldo de Barros went to furniture-making in the early 1950s, seeking a more popular artform that would make his work available to a larger audience - which was more or less the IDEA behind the Bauhaus movement. In 1954, he founded the company Unilabor with a Dominican priest and skilled tradesmen. Unilabor was run by its employees and all benefits shared between them, thus becoming the first communitarian business in Modern Brazil history. Unilabor grew quickly to become one of the most important furniture companies in the country, but internal disputes led to the end of the company in 1967.
In 1964, De Barros went on to found in association with Aloísio Bione another furniture design company called Hobjeto. After Unilabor, Hobjeto was a more capitalistic project but without losing his constructive characteristics. Until his retirement in 1989, de Barros designed and projected in-numerous furniture lines in this Industrial manner. He even built a personal workshop in the factory to project and create his last painting series in Formica. The furniture and the paintings are finally created using the same techniques.
Size: H75, W210, D90 (cm) H29.5, W82.7, D35.4 (inches)

Literature (attached images)
• Boa forma gute form - design no brasil 1947-1968
• Picture from Geraldo de Barros family archive.