Martin Eisler

Martin Eisler (* 1913  in Vienna ; † 1977 ) was an Austrian furniture designer , architect , set designer and entrepreneur who worked in Brazil . Only after emigrating to Argentina , he and Carlo Hauner became an important representative of Brazilian modernism in furniture and interior design.

Life

Eisler was born in Vienna and was exposed to the art and design criticism of his father, the Austrian art historian Max Eisler , who was a founding member of the Austrian Werkbund , the progressive association of modern artists and architects, designers and engineers. Eisler studied architecture and design at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna with well-known modernists such as the architect Oskar Strnad .

Due to his Jewish heritage and the annexation of Austria by the National Socialists in 1938 , Eisler emigrated to Buenos Aires , Argentina, where he exhibited his furniture designs in the Mueller Gallery, which became the National Office of Fine Arts in 1940, in the Palais de Glace . In 1945 he founded the company Interieur with Arnold Hackel , which sold furniture and objects designed by the duo and thus started his career as a designer. There he also worked as an architect, set designer and interior designer. Eisler met Hauner after he had traveled to São Paulo to design an apartment and had the pieces of furniture he designed manufactured. Hauner valued his work and Eisler eventually settled in the Brazilian city and in 1953 became a partner in the Forma company , which specialized in modern Brazilian furniture and furnishings.

In the late 1950s, Carlo Hauner decided to return to Italy and opened a Forma branch in Brescia , which was ultimately unsuccessful. Although he had a successful career as a freelance designer, Hauner ultimately decided to return to his roots as a painter and also developed a career as a wine producer. In Brazil, Forma was led by Martin Eisler as artistic director and Ernesto Wolf as managing director.

Forma continued its series production model and achieved great success in the diffusion of modern furniture, especially from 1959 when it signed a contract with Knoll International . This partnership was a milestone that brought major names in international design to Brazil: Eero Saarinen , Florence Knoll , Harry Bertoia and Marcel Breuer . Eisler also opened a Forma branch in Buenos Aires as an architecture, industrial and interior design office with partners Arnold Hakel and Susi Aczel, who are still in business today and are known as Interieur Forma .

plant

Eisler's experience in Brazil sparked his interest in exotic woods and painting techniques on wood, glass and bronze. Eisler's two companies then began to work together synergistically to produce furniture that was very successful in both Argentina and Brazil. This led him to sign a contract with Knoll International between the late 1950s and early 1960s. This led to its growth and establishment at a time when the contract furniture market was at the height of its expansion with the establishment of the new capital Brasília and the Oscar Niemeyer projects, to which he contributed with great success.

Also valued as an architect for his projects, which are characterized by their extensive creativity, which individually adapts every detail from the building to the furniture, Eisler also worked as a set designer and opera director.

His best-known design pieces include the Reversível and Costela chairs , which have been awarded the prestigious Milan Compasso d'Oro . The famous auction house Christie's registered the first purchase in 1999. Martin Eisler's furniture has always been valued all over the world. Advertisements from leading contemporary design magazines such as Domus and Habitat show the Forma range as a selection of furniture, ceramics and textiles, whose combination of materials and organic shapes represents an elegant and accessible ideal of modernism.