Recognition abroad and prizes

"We sold 14 pieces of the Diz armchair. The store had never sold so many pieces in a first exhibit." (Sergio Rodrigues)

“We sold 14 pieces of the Diz armchair. The store had never sold so many pieces in a first exhibit.” (Sergio Rodrigues)

In 2004, Sergio Rodrigues won his first solo exhibit abroad, more precisely in New York, at 25th Century, the Tribeca gallery. He was then 78 years old. The exhibit took place forty-three years after he won the 4th International Furniture Competition in Cantu, Italy. It was as if Sergio was being rediscovered, after his furniture had been a unique attraction at the Brazilian Interiors store, in Carmel, California, between 1966 and 1968, and after the Mole armchair became part of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) design collection, in New York, in 1974.

Two years after the exhibit, Sergio spoke with Folha de São Paulo reporter Mario Giola about how his work was appreciated outside of Brazil in an interview titled Sergio Rodrigues, tropical designer and remarked on the New York exhibition: “Three years ago, a group from New York that has an art gallery and sells antiques, which they call vintage, R 20th Century, came here to Rio. They already sold my pieces, pieces by Zanine [José Zanine Caldas, 1919-2001, a Bahia furniture designer], and pieces made by Tenreiro [Joaquim Tenreiro, 1906-1992]. They were raved about the new furniture made by Lin Brasil. They decided to take a few antique pieces and one I had just made. It was the Diz armchair, my last ‘daughter.’ I was and still am crazy for it. I was invited to an exhibit that they were going to make at Tribeca, where the gallery is located, with my furniture. When I got there, I saw the Diz armchair in the shop window. After a week, the shop owner told me excitedly that he had sold 14 pieces. We had never sold so many pieces in a first exhibit.” They continued buying new pieces, and I continued making new designs.”

Critics believe that Brazilianness was at the base of the interest Sergio always aroused outside of Brazil, and of the many articles published about his work in the international press. Another reason for this interest was the increasing appreciation of Brazilian design abroad. In fact, the Brazilian culture was gaining space in the international media and opening fronts in order to also increase interest in Brazil in general.

The São Paulo journalist Adélia Borges, who is specialized in Brazilian design, has a distinct feeling of this change and believes that, today, Brazil has another status in the universe of design creations. “In the 1980s, when I attended international trade shows and said I was a Brazilian journalist, some of the booths would not give interviews, they would turn their backs saying Brazil was copycat. Factories that copied things done outside Brazil predominated in the country. Today, when I say I am Brazilian, I am seen with interest, respect, and curiosity. This interest in Brazilian design was greatly propelled by the Campana brothers, when they made an exhibition at MoMA, in New York. Since 1989, the Campanas had been producing on the artisanal scale: Things they designed and produced in very small amounts on their own. Then came a large Italian factory, Edra, which went on to produce and to divulge them. They became stars at the Milan furniture salon. At that time, two Brazilians dictated the trends. They paved the way to what was happening in Brazil as a whole. But Sergio’s awards, in 1961, were a first moment of recognition.”

In 1961, the Isa outfit, from Bergamo, Italy, started producing the Mole chair and renamed it Sheriff. And they divulged it a lot. This company went as far as giving the chair away as a gift to personalities of the time, such as Nikita Khrushchev and Pope Pius XII, President John Kennedy, and Queen Elizabeth. “Today, the world is more multicultural, with multidirectional exchanges and, thus, Brazilian design, which had no visibility at this time, had something to show,” says Adélia.

In 1989, the whole of Sergio’s work was granted the Lapiz de Plata Award at the Buenos Aires Architecture Biennial. In 1993, he took part in the Convegno Brasile – La Costruzione a Identita Culturale show, in Brescia, Italy, together with Zanine Caldas and Lucio Costa – it was called Furniture, Architecture and Urbanism. In 2004, he was the topic of the Sultan in the Studio solo exhibition, at the R20th Century gallery, in New York.

The following are a few awards Sergio was granted and exhibitions he took part in over his career:

Awards
· 4th International Furniture Competition in Cantu, Italy, first prize (1961)
· IAB award for the Kilin armchair (1975)
· 4th Movesp Furniture Design Award, São Paulo (1991)
· Design Award at the Casa Brasileira Museum: 1st place for the Diz armchair, in the furniture category (2006)
· Grand Master Medal of the Rio Branco Order, at the Itamaraty Palace, in Rio de Janeiro (2003)
· Lapiz de Plata Award – Buenos Aires
· 1st Móvel Brasil Product Development Awards, Santa Catarina (2009)
· Cultural Merit Order Medal, delivered by deputy governor Luiz Fernando Pezão, in Rio de Janeiro (2009).

Exhibitions
1982 – Design in Brazil: History and Reality – SESC/São Paulo
1984 – Chair: Evolution and Design – Casa Brasileira Museum, São Paulo, 1991 – Speaking about Chairs – Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro 1992 – Missing Brazil: The JK Era – Traveling Exhibition
1993 – Brasille93 – La Construzione Di Una Identità Culturale Exhibit – University of Brescia, Italy
1997 – Forty years of Mole – Rio Design Leblon, Rio de Janeiro
1998 – International Design Show – Method and industrialism – CCBB, Rio de Janeiro 2004 – Exhibition at R20th Century, New York
2007 – Furniture Exhibition at the Milan Fair, sponsored by LinBrasil. 2008 – Bienal Iberoamericana de Diseño – Madri, Spain
2008 – Brasil Casa Design – Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2008 – Time and Place: Rio de Janeiro 1956/1964 – Moderna Musset, Stockholm, Sweden
2009 – Brazil Influence – Brussels, Belgium.
2010 – Sergio Rodrigues: A Designer from the Tropics – Rio de Janeiro/Brazil
2012 – Sergio Rodrigues Exhibit – I am Rio, this bossa is ours, Fashion Rio, Rio de Janeiro (curatorship by Mari Stockler).