The Evolution of Latin American Furniture: Crafting Modernity at the MoMA

An exhibit in the Museum of Modern Art, Crafting Modernity: Design in Latin America (2024), is a temporary home for the various works of Latin American artists, ranging from furniture to ceramics. This exhibition houses designs created between 1940 and 1980, displaying modern pieces that showcase different visions of modernity during this new wave of modernization. 

During World War II, Latin American countries faced European trade disruptions and were forced to develop their markets to meet domestic needs and ensure economic security. Thus, many of these countries gained more political and economic autonomy, causing regions to reevaluate their national identity. Culturally, the arts flourished. Designers and artists took part in projects that reflected their countries’ nationalistic ideals, crafting works that encapsulated visions for the future. In particular, everyday households became a medium for artists to characterize the drastic changes that took place in political, economic, and social settings. 

Upon entering the exhibition, viewers are welcomed by a bright vermilion wall bearing the exhibit’s name. To its left hangs Roberto Burle Marx’s Ibirapuera Park, Quadricentennial Gardens, project São Paulo Brazil (Plan, detail five) (1953), a colorful floor plan composed of visually varying rectangles within a larger, olive green clump. On a slightly elevated platform attached to the wall sits three pieces of furniture: Paulo Mendes de Rocha’s Paulistano Chair (1957), Oscar Niemeyer’s “Modulo” Low Table (1978), and Joaquim Tenreiro’s Three-Legged Chair (1947). These works introduce the eccentricity of Latino artists’ imaginations, as each piece of furniture differs in size, shape, and material, challenging the conventional structure of chairs or coffee tables.

One of the exhibit’s immediate standouts is Malittle Lounge Furniture (1966) by Chilean artist and former architect Roberto Matta. Four green polyurethane blocks resembling chairs are arranged to form a larger square, with a lemon-yellow footrest in the center. The fluidity of the furniture’s shapes creates a playful and unusual look, underscoring the avant-garde and contemporary influences that swept across Latin America at the time. The piece exudes unconventionality; it can be constructed into one larger whole and deconstructed into several pieces.

Delving deeper into the exhibition, viewers come across Cuban-Mexican designer Clara Porset’s Butaque (1957), a chair with a low, curved wooden frame and woven wicker. Traditionally, a butaque is made of animal skin, but Porset’s piece is made of wood and woven wicker, highlighting another traditional Mexican artistic practice drawn from pre-Hispanic Basketry making.  Though the chair evokes comfort and contemporary design motifs, she preserves ancient processes by producing her work by hand, calling attention to scarcities in specific materials used by designers.

Porset was born in Matanzas, Cuba, to a wealthy family. She was able to study design abroad in the United States before traveling to Europe to work with faculty at the famed German art school Bauhaus. She eventually moved to Mexico, where she explored the nation’s traditional craft of the culturally significant chair and made her contemporary adaptations in comfort and design.

Another standout piece in the exhibition is Brazilian architect and designer Lina Bo Bardi’s Bowl Chair (1951). A simple but comfortable design, the Bowl Chair speaks for itself: a hemispherical chair made of steel and midnight blue fabric supported by four legs. Bardi’s chair balances both versatility and playfulness; the position of the hemisphere can be adjusted to the individual’s preference.

Filled with an assortment of avant-garde ideas, Crafting Modernity: Design in Latin America succeeds in immersing visitors into the contemporary, bustling realm of internal design. Despite the differences in their interpretations of modernization, these artists are all united by the common theme of the influence of and reactions to this new wave of industrialization in the cultural and social scene in Latin America. As Porset once wrote, “Design is only a result; its purpose is to cooperate in raising the general standard of living by bringing efficiency and artistry to one’s daily circumstances.”