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ca. 1951

painted iron and fabric upholstery

ILLUSTRATED

Mobilia Moderna Brasileira 1940-1970, exh. cat., Rio de Janeiro, 2004, p. 13
EXHIBITED

Mobilia Moderna Brasileira 1940-1970, Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social, Rio de Janeiro, May 5-June 11, 2004
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

"Free-Tilting Cuddle Bowl," Interiors, November 1953, cover and pp. 67 and 98-99
Mario dal Fabbro, Modern Furniture, New York, 1958, cover and p. 40
Lina Bo Bardi, Sao Paulo, 1993, pp. 76-77
Maria Cecília Loschiavo dos Santos, Móvel Moderno no Brasil, Sao Paulo, 1995, p. 99
Olivia de Olivera, Lina Bo Bardi: Obra Construida/Built Work, Barcelona, 2003, p. 228
CATALOGUE NOTE

Lina Bo Bardi ranks as one of the most prolific and successful female architects of her generation, and her contributions are often compared to those of Charlotte Perriand, Lily Reich, Julia Morgan and Eileen Gray. Born and educated in Rome, she moved to Milan after her studies and worked on projects for the Gio Ponti office through his associate Carlo Pagani. With Pagani, she also co-edited Domus for a short time in 1943. Three years later, she and her husband Pietro Maria Bardi, a prominent art critic and gallery owner, moved to Brazil where the latter was invited to direct the Sao Paulo Museum of Art. Bo Bardi became a naturalized Brazilian citizen in 1951.

She taught at Sao Paulo University's College of Architecture and Urbanism, and she founded Habitat magazine. She also designed and built her own Glass House, as well as the Sao Paulo Art Museum that her husband directed. For a while, she taught at the university in Bahia, and she founded and directed the modern art museum there. In the 1970s, Bo Bardi took a respite from her architectural projects to devote herself to theater and film set design, but in the 1980s and until her death in 1992, she once again focused on architecture.

Throughout her career, Bo Bardi designed furnishings for numerous interiors, but perhaps her most famous chair, simply known as the "Bowl" chair, was designed for industrial production. Illustrated on the cover of the November 1953 issue of Interiors, the chair was dubbed a "free-tilting cuddle bowl." The magazine went on to proclaim that "her semi-circular, padded plastic lounge-shell, which is movable in its support, reveals a lighter aspect of her talent, as well as her youth and good legs" (as seen in an accompanying photograph of Bo Bardi posing in the chair, Fig. 1, an image reminiscent of Charlotte Perriand's photo illustrating her chaise longue). Praising its versatility in positioning and its light weight, Interiors suggested the chair for the beach.

PHOTO CAPTION: Lina Bo Bardi seated in the "Bowl" Chair, 1950
PHOTO CREDIT: Archives Instituto Lina Bo e P. M. Bardi, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Francisco Albuquerque - 1950