Martin Eisler

Martin Eisler (1913-1977), of Austrian origin, was a seminal figure in the development of design in Latin America. Born in Vienna and the son of the important art historian Max Eisler, Martin studied architecture under the famous Oskar Strnad. Of Jewish origins, following the Anschluss he was forced to emigrate to South America in 1938 to escape Nazi persecution and there he soon became famous as an architect among the community of expatriates from Germany who needed to rebuild their lives and homes far from their homeland. A precise and meticulous interior designer, Eisler loved to personally design every aspect of his projects, from furniture to lamps and even handles and windows. In 1940, the first exhibition of his furniture took place at the Mueller Gallery in Buenos Aires and a few years later he founded the company Interieur with Arnold Hackel, dedicated to the production and sale of furniture designed by the duo. In 1953 he moved to Brazil, to the city of São Paulo, where he became a partner in Carlo Hauner’s (1927-1997) Forma company: it was a period of great creativity for him, in which the encounter between his European artistic sensibility, rich in Bauhaus influences, combined with the encounter with local materials of great expressive power, such as the characteristic Brazilian woods, giving life to an unprecedented mix that would also have a great influence on the future developments of the nascent Brazilian design scene. The Costela (1952) and Reversível (1955) armchairs, re-edited with enormous success by the Italian brand Tacchini in 2019, are the result of his work with Forma. At the end of the 1950s, Hauner left Brazil to return to his native Italy, and Eisler, left alone to lead Forma, had a highly successful intuition: he signed an agreement with the American brand Knoll to become the licensee for the exclusive production of its furniture in South America. The modern Knoll furniture produced by Eisler was widely used in the palaces of Brasilia, a new capital that was seeing the light in those years under the direction of the legendary Oscar Niemeyer who often included in his projects also furnishings designed by Eisler, whom he greatly esteemed. Eisler also founded an Argentine branch of the Interieur Forma group, today managed by his heirs and still active in the marketing of Knoll furniture in Buenos Aires.