An assortment of 80s toys is available on 1stDibs. Today, if you’re looking for
abstract editions of these works and are unable to find the perfect match for your home, our selection also includes
modern. These items have been produced for many years, with earlier versions available from the 20th Century and newer variations made as recently as the 21st Century. If you’re looking to add 80s toys that pop against an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include that feature elements of
gray,
black,
beige,
orange and more. Many versions of these artworks are appealing in their rich colors and composition, but
Christian Rothmann,
Phillip Buehler,
Stefanie Schneider,
Buster Cleveland and
Destro produced especially popular works that are worth a look. The range of these distinct pieces — often created in
c print,
archival pigment print and
pigment print — can elevate any room of your home.
The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw sweeping social change and major scientific advances — both of which contributed to a new aesthetic: modernism. Rejecting the rigidity of Victorian artistic conventions, modernists sought a new means of expression. References to the natural world and ornate classical embellishments gave way to the sleek simplicity of the Machine Age. Architect Philip Johnson characterized the hallmarks of modernism as “machine-like simplicity, smoothness or surface [and] avoidance of ornament.”
Early practitioners of modernist design include the De Stijl (“The Style”) group, founded in the Netherlands in 1917, and the Bauhaus School, founded two years later in Germany.
Followers of both groups produced sleek, spare designs — many of which became icons of daily life in the 20th century. The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics. While Bauhaus principals Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created furniture from mass-produced, chrome-plated steel, American visionaries like Charles and Ray Eames worked in materials as novel as molded plywood and fiberglass. Today, Breuer’s Wassily chair, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair — crafted with his romantic partner, designer Lilly Reich — and the Eames lounge chair are emblems of progressive design and vintage originals are prized cornerstones of collections.
It’s difficult to overstate the influence that modernism continues to wield over designers and architects — and equally difficult to overstate how revolutionary it was when it first appeared a century ago. But because modernist furniture designs are so simple, they can blend in seamlessly with just about any type of décor. Don’t overlook them.
