There are 5 other images of this object. See our image rights statement.

See more objects with the tag interior, home, seating, sculptural, chairs, comfort, bent, angular, chair.

See more objects with the color sienna dimgrey or see all the colors for this object.

Object Timeline

1947	Work on this object began.
2000	We acquired this object.
2001	We photographed this object. We photographed this object. We photographed this object. We photographed this object.
2013	We photographed this object.
2015	We photographed this object.
2024	You found it!

"Barwa" Chair

This is a chair. It was designed by Edgar Bartolucci and John J. Waldheim and manufactured by Barwa Associates. It is dated introduced 1947 and we acquired it in 2000. Its medium is bent tubular aluminum, canvas. It is a part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department.

Designed as a streamlined update from Michael Thonet’s bentwood lounge chairs through Le Corbusier and Marcel Breuer’s metal versions of the 1920s and 1930s, the “Barwa” – a combination of designers Bartolucci and Waldheim’s names – became synonymous with postwar American leisure. The chair was aligned with an easy lifestyle in a 1949 ad titled “Revolution in Relaxation,” and again in a 1960s advertisement for Hilton Hotels in the Caribbean. Its bent aluminum frame allowed the sitter to rock back for feet-over-head reclining, seen as the epitome of healthful relaxation.

This object was donated by Edgar Bartolucci. It is credited Gift of Edgar Bartolucci.

Chair (USA)
slumped plate glass, metal, textile.
Museum purchase through gift of George R. Kravis II and from General....
2013-1-1

An undulating chair formed from a bent and molded birch-faced, light chestnut-colored plywood seat, and a curvilinear, sand-colored bent birch frame. The wave-like seat panel starts with a back-curved head rest descending on an angled plane to the bottom of the spine before heading up to bend at the knee area and descend slightly at the calf. The seat is supported by a curved frame which stretches backwards to a cross bar and supports the back legs, forming a trapezoidal shape. The arms are formed from two undulating bent-birch strips which mirror the curves of the seat and are joined to the back legs.

Long Chair Chair
birch (frame), birch-faced plywood (seat).
Museum purchase through gift of George R. Kravis II, Anonymous Donor, and....
2013-17-1

Bubbles Chaise Longue
layered and bent corrugated cardboard.
Museum purchase from the Members' Acquisitions Fund of Cooper-Hewitt,....
2012-3-1

Our curators have highlighted 4 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:

Here we have one of four fabric, circular chairs. The chairs are an array of colors: a deep red for the largest size, gray for the smallest, bold blue for the second largest size, and a bright green for the second smallest. They are all shaped like a cone and sit on the ground, with a sharp end on the outside. Inside the circular opening is a gridded, padded wall in each respectable color. The smallest gray chair has a t-shaped belt lap belt, as does the second smallest green chair, while the blue, second largest has buckle and strap only, and the largest is red and strapless. Visible in the red chair is a line running across the bottom indicating its foldability.

Chair, Size 3, R82 Scallop, 2016
shell: polypropylene; cushion: polyester and polyurethane; straps: polypropylene.
Gift of Convaid | R82.
s-e-2610

Chair, Size 1, R82 Scallop, 2016
shell: polypropylene; cushion: polyester and polyurethane; straps: polypropylene.
Gift of Convaid | R82.
s-e-2608

Chair, Size 4, R82 Scallop, 2016
shell: polypropylene; cushion: polyester and polyurethane; straps: polypropylene.
Gift of Convaid | R82.
s-e-2611

Its dimensions are

104h x 53w x 132.4d cm (40 15/16 x 20 7/8 x 52 1/8 in. )

Cite this object as

"Barwa" Chair; Designed by Edgar Bartolucci (American, b.1918), John J. Waldheim (American, b. 1920); Manufactured by Barwa Associates; USA; bent tubular aluminum, canvas; 104h x 53w x 132.4d cm (40 15/16 x 20 7/8 x 52 1/8 in. ); Gift of Edgar Bartolucci; 2000-17-1

Short URL http://cprhw.tt/o/2DJpF/
Accession Number 2000-17-1
Object ID 18678301