Oscar Niemeyer Exceptional Sofa in Rosewood and Leather, Hotel SESC, Brazil 1990

A rare, three-seat sofa by Oscar Niemeyer for the SESC Hotel Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro; in Brazilian rosewood with black leather cushions. A model of modernist sensuality that makes remarkable use of Niemeyer’s distinct vocabulary of soaring forms and flowing lines, this generously proportioned work features beautifully curved waterfall arms of singular purity, buoying a straight-edged body and suspended frame. The rounded rosewood back, in which nestle three large cushions, echoes the arch of the arms. Despite its majestic size, the piece seems to float: Only half of each arm touches the ground, conveying an impression of lightness, simplicity, and grace typical of Niemeyer’s curvilinear structures.

At the same time, the sofa’s ample proportions and comfortable cushions invite the sitter to linger in free-flowing conversation — a poetic adjustment of the architect’s vocabulary into a domestic setting.

A committed socialist, Niemeyer was devoted, in his own words, to “making this unjust world a better place in which to live,” through both activism and architecture. This sofa is part of his design for the 1990 SESC Hotel Copacabana, a project of the Serviço Social do Comércio, a social services organization established in the 1940’s by Carioca trade groups, for which Niemeyer designed both the building and original furnishings.

Like Le Corbusier, with whom he collaborated in his early years, Brazil’s greatest architect well understood how to bring structural lightness to designs both monumental and private. But alongside other pioneers of Brazilian modernism like Sergio Rodrigues and Joaquim Tenreiro, he also incorporated what he considered a specifically Carioca joy and sense of place —evident here, for instance, in his use of parabolas, which echo the hills and waves of Rio. Coupled with a respect for native materials, they make his work inviting and distinct, infusing the sometimes dictatorial rationalism of modernism with a surprising sensuality.

Brazil, 1990.