Memphis Style Postmodern Color Blocked Plaster Table Lamp, 1980's
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Memphis style color blocked table lamp, circa 1980's. This sculptural modern form lamp features a yellow fluted column with accents of purple, pink, teal, and blue. Lamp shade includ...
Plaster
Memphis "SUPER" Table Lamp by Martine Bedin, Colorful Design, 1981
By Martine Bedin
Located in Tinton Falls, NJ
The Classic super lamp with rubber wheels by early Memphis inceptor Martine Bedin (France). Understated elegance meets Memphis eye-popping colour all-in-one! The lamps are by Marti...
Fiberglass, Rubber, Lacquer
$1,280Sale Price|20% Off
Rare Pair Yellow Ikea Lack End Tables Sweden 1999 Art Memphis Postmodern Decor
By IKEA
Located in Peoria, AZ
Rare! Ikea LACK End Tables Made in Poland 1999 Coveted Discontinued Yellow Color! Here are a quarter century old pair of First Year 1999 Ikea LACK tables in the coveted YELLOW co...
Wood
Memphis - Milano - Postmodern Gufram Massolo Coffee Table, 1st Edition, 1970s
By Gufram Furniture
Located in Renens, CH
An original first edition of the Massolo coffee table by Gufram, produced in Italy during the 1970s. A key piece from the Radical Design movement, the table is made of sculpted pol...
Foam
Murano Glass Table Lamp Shell Silhouette Postmodern Memphis Style Italy, 1980s
Located in Montecalvoli, IT
Murano Glass Table Lamp Shell Silhouette Postmodern Memphis Style Italy, 1980s This vintage Murano glass table lamp from the 1980s impresses with its playful postmodern Memphis desi...
Murano Glass
Postmodern Navy Blue Lacquered Wood Pedestal Side Table, 1980s, Memphis Style
Located in Antwerp, BE
A striking round pedestal side table crafted from wood and finished in a deep navy blue lacquer. Heavily influenced by the Italian Memphis movement, it features a unique cluster-pill...
Wood
Vintage IKEA Ry Chrome & Glass Side Table Designed by Tord Björklund, ca. 1980s
By Tord Bjorklund, IKEA, Memphis Group
Located in Brooklyn, NY
This vintage 1980s side table features a U-leg chrome base and round glass table top. Similar to pieces by the Memphis Group, Tord Björklund's design exemplifies the postmodern aesth...
Chrome
Set of 2 Red Vintage Table Lamps Postmodern Memphis Design Italy, 1980s
Located in Montecalvoli, IT
Set of 2 red vintage table lamps Postmodern Memphis design Italy, 1980s This extraordinary set of 2 minimalist table lamps comes from Italy around the 1980s. The lamps with swivelin...
Metal
$1,340Sale Price|20% Off
Monumental Solid Iron Postmodern Memphis Era Large Triangle Coffee Table Base
By Ettore Sottsass
Located in San Diego, CA
Majestic solid patinated iron art Deco memphis era coffee table base, nice red & black finish that can easily be resprayed but looks great as/is, circa 1980's we are selling the base...
Iron
"Nastro" by Stilnovo 1980s Italian Design Alberto Fraser Memphis Table Lamp
By Alberto Fraser, Stilnovo
Located in Brescia, IT
"Nastro" Alberto Fraser by Stilnovo 1983 Multi-color pvc Black polycarbonate base.
Plastic, PVC
$255Sale Price|75% Off
Mint green ceramic table lamp from Porcelaines de Bruxelles in Memphis style.
Located in Herentals, BE
The lamp base has a matte mint green glaze and slim shape. The table lamp has a professionally handmade custom lampshade made of fine cotton with a floral pattern in soft colors. The...
Ceramic, Fabric
1980s Nanda Vigo Italian Postmodern design Blue Coffee Table Memphis Style
By Nanda Vigo
Located in Brescia, IT
Nanda Vigo, coffee table. Glass Design Macherio, 1981 Enameled metal frame with wood feet Crystal top. Excellent condiction Available bibliography
Crystal, Metal
1980s Postmodern Memphis Style Faux Granite Pedestal or Plant Stand
By Ettore Sottsass
Located in W Allenhurst, NJ
Striking vintage Postmodern pedestal or plant stand dating to the 1980s. The sculptural design features three slender cylindrical supports in a soft blush-pink finish, positioned bet...
Wood
Set of 2 Memphis Style Table Lamps by George Kovacs for Sonneman, USA, c. 1990s
Located in Deland, FL
Enhance your interior with this striking set of two Post Modern Memphis Style table lamps, designed by the renowned George Kovacs and manufactured by Sonneman in the USA during the 1...
Metal
Memphis Post-Modern Table Top Jewelry Chest in the Style of Ettore Sottsass
By Ettore Sottsass
Located in San Diego, CA
Gorgeous hand-made Memphis post-modern table top jewelry chest with five drawers in the style of Ettore Sottsass, circa 1980s.
Brass, Metal
Postmodern Marble Coffee / Cocktail Table (after Angelo Mangiarotti)
By Memphis Group, Giotto Stoppino, Giorgio Bonaguro, Angelo Mangiarotti, Memphis Milano
Located in Round Top, TX
Sculptural Postmodern marble cocktail table with four conical "legs" in black and white striped stone motif, creating the table's defining feature. The legs dramatically pierce throu...
Marble
Postmodern Memphis Design Writing Desk, Germany, 1980s
Located in Antwerp, Antwerp
This striking postmodern writing desk exemplifies the bold aesthetics of the Memphis design movement. The desk features an asymmetrical green laminated wood surface supported by a bl...
Metal
Vintage Postmodern Memphis Wave Metal Lamps - a Pair
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
A fantastic pair of vintage Postmodern table lamps. The coveted Memphis style wave in a black metal. Acquired from a Palm Beach estate.
Metal
80s Pop Art Desk Lamp in the Postmodern Memphis Style
Located in Montecalvoli, IT
80s Pop Art desk lamp in the postmodern Memphis Style 80s 90s Postmodern desk lamp that can be extended to different heights. In the base there is a screw-on view box in which the o...
Metal
Postmodern Trolley, Memphis Style, Quaderna Pattern, Italy 1980s
Located in Brussels, Brussels
Black White Postmodern Serving Trolley with Quaderna Pattern. In a minimalist, efficient style typical of 80s design, this serving trolley has a highly graphic silhouette. In blac...
Metal, Steel
XL 80s Pop Art Desklamp In Postmodern Memphis Style, 80s, 90s
Located in Montecalvoli, IT
XL 80s Pop Art Desklamp in Postmodern Memphis Style, 80s, 90s Very nice and rare postmodern desk lamp. This vintage design object is in its original condition and can have minimal s...
Metal
Porfido Coffee Table by Piero Gilardi for Gufram Limited Edition, 1974
By Gufram Furniture, Memphis Group, Piero Gilardi
Located in Vienna, AT
Rare limited edition table by Piero Gilardi from 1974. This is an early piece numbered 27/500 Measurements are 38 x 26 x 14 inches. Resembling an ancient engraved piece of stone, i...
Polystyrene
Rare XXL Desk Lamp In The Postmodern Popart Memphis Style of Haba, 90s
Located in Montecalvoli, IT
Rare XXL desk lamp in the postmodern popart Memphis style of Haba, 90s Very nice and rare postmodern desk lamp from Haba from the 80s, 90s. The flexible lamp can serve both as a des...
Wood
Pair of Memphis Style Banker's lamps attr. to Robert Sonneman, USA 1980s
By Robert Sonneman
Located in Beograd, RS
In this listing you will find a distinctive pair of Postmodern table lamps design attr. to Robert Sonneman, showcasing his signature approach to architectural lighting and material c...
Metal
XXL POP Art Desk Lamp In The Postmodern Memphis Style of Haba 80s, 90s
Located in Montecalvoli, IT
XXL POP Art desk lamp in the postmodern Memphis style of Haba 80s, 90s Very nice and rare postmodern desk lamp from Haba from the 80s, 90s. The flexible lamp can serve both as a des...
Wood
Triangular Memphis Style Inspired Lacquered 'Boca Desk' by Leon Rosen for Pace
By Leon Rosen, Pace Collection
Located in Aramits, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Triangular, almost sail-shaped desk in high gloss lacquered walnut with three drawers. The desk is mounted on cylindrical black lacquered legs, with one prominent tapered black lacqu...
Walnut
Red Mira Table Lamp by Mario Arnaboldi for Programmaluce Italy
By Memphis Group, Ettore Sottsass, Mario Arnaboldi, Arredoluce, Programmaluce
Located in Chicago, IL
Red Mira Table Lamp by Mario Arnaboldi for Programmaluce Italy. Period 1980s lamp. Shows some wear to the red finish. The black plug inserts are damaged or missing. The little revol...
Metal
Vintage Triangle Stand Clock Two-Piece Memphis Style Italy, 1980s
Located in Montecalvoli, IT
Vintage triangle stand clock two-piece Memphis Style Italy, 1980s This unique vintage clock by Diamantini Domeniconi impresses with its high-contrast design in Memphis style. The tr...
Metal
Postmodern Illuminated Vanity Mirror, Unique Piece, France, 1980s
By Memphis Group, Martine Bedin, Ettore Sottsass
Located in SOTTEVILLE-LÈS-ROUEN, FR
A rare and highly expressive postmodern illuminated vanity mirror, conceived as a unique piece in France during the 1980s. Blurring the line between functional object and sculptural ...
Mirror
Yellow Plastic "Super G" Table Lamp by Guido Venturini for Alessi, Italy, 2001.
By Alessandro Mendini, Andy Warhol, Memphis Milano, Alessi, Ettore Sottsass
Located in Malmö, SE
A large postmodern / Pop Art plastic "Super G" table lamp. Designed by Guido Venturini and produced Alessi Tendentse, Italy, 2001. Great original condition, only some light scratc...
Ceramic
$516Sale Price|20% Off
Postmodernist 1980 Memphis Pop-Art Lamp In Stainless Steel In The Shape of Man
Located in Miami, FL
An op-art postmodernist lamp. Unusual postmodernist pop art lamp created with memphis design patterns in the continental United States back in the 1980's. Crafted with the silhoue...
Steel, Stainless Steel
Italian Memphis Style Two Tiered Rolling Bar Cart with Black Frame and Glass Top
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Italian Memphis style two tiered rolling bar cart with black metal frame, lacquered wood lower shelf and glass top shelf. In original condition with visible wear consistent with its ...
Metal
$3,800Sale Price|34% Off
Postmodern Bamboo Desk in Red Formica, Italy, Circa 1985
By Memphis Group, Archizoom Associati, Andrea Branzi
Located in Vienna, AT
Rare Red (oxblood red) Formica bamboo desk, Italy, circa 1985 Dimensions are: 55.12" x 29.92 x 15.74". A Postmodern desk or console table, perfect and stylish, comprised of for...
Bamboo, Formica
$250Sale Price|50% Off
Glass Pendulum Clock Takashi Kato Postmodern, 1980s Japanese Design
By Memphis Milano, Nathalie du Pasquier
Located in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Glass pendulum clock by Sessa. It can be used as both standing on the table and hanging on the wall. Takashi Kato designed a lot of clocks in the 1980s-1990s. Some of clock collectio...
Glass, Plastic
Postmodern design was a short-lived movement that manifested itself chiefly in Italy and the United States in the early 1980s. The characteristics of vintage postmodern furniture and other postmodern objects and decor for the home included loud-patterned, usually plastic surfaces; strange proportions, vibrant colors and weird angles; and a vague-at-best relationship between form and function.
ORIGINS OF POSTMODERN FURNITURE DESIGN
CHARACTERISTICS OF POSTMODERN FURNITURE DESIGN
POSTMODERN FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW
VINTAGE POSTMODERN FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS
Critics derided postmodern design as a grandstanding bid for attention and nothing of consequence. Decades later, the fact that postmodernism still has the power to provoke thoughts, along with other reactions, proves they were not entirely correct.
Postmodern design began as an architectural critique. Starting in the 1960s, a small cadre of mainly American architects began to argue that modernism, once high-minded and even noble in its goals, had become stale, stagnant and blandly corporate. Later, in Milan, a cohort of creators led by Ettore Sottsass and Alessandro Mendini — a onetime mentor to Sottsass and a key figure in the Italian Radical movement — brought the discussion to bear on design.
Sottsass, an industrial designer, philosopher and provocateur, gathered a core group of young designers into a collective in 1980 they called Memphis. Members of the Memphis Group, which would come to include Martine Bedin, Michael Graves, Marco Zanini, Shiro Kuramata, Michele de Lucchi and Matteo Thun, saw design as a means of communication, and they wanted it to shout. That it did: The first Memphis collection appeared in 1981 in Milan and broke all the modernist taboos, embracing irony, kitsch, wild ornamentation and bad taste.
Memphis works remain icons of postmodernism: the Sottsass Casablanca bookcase, with its leopard-print plastic veneer; de Lucchi’s First chair, which has been described as having the look of an electronics component; Martine Bedin’s Super lamp: a pull-toy puppy on a power-cord leash. Even though it preceded the Memphis Group’s formal launch, Sottsass’s iconic Ultrafragola mirror — in its conspicuously curved plastic shell with radical pops of pink neon — proves striking in any space and embodies many of the collective’s postmodern ideals.
After the initial Memphis show caused an uproar, the postmodern movement within furniture and interior design quickly took off in America. (Memphis fell out of fashion when the Reagan era gave way to cool 1990’s minimalism.) The architect Robert Venturi had by then already begun a series of plywood chairs for Knoll Inc., with beefy, exaggerated silhouettes of traditional styles such as Queen Anne and Chippendale. In 1982, the new firm Swid Powell enlisted a group of top American architects, including Frank Gehry, Richard Meier, Stanley Tigerman and Venturi to create postmodern tableware in silver, ceramic and glass.
On 1stDibs, the vintage postmodern furniture collection includes chairs, coffee tables, sofas, decorative objects, table lamps and more.
It's hard to resist the allure of a beautiful pool. So, go ahead and daydream about whiling away your summer in paradise.
Alessandro Mendini, Michael Graves, Ettore Sottsass and other design luminaries contributed to this unusual collection of porcelain wares representing a time capsule of late-20th-century decorative art.
Aided by photos taken of the maestro in his Milan studio, we honor the influential design talent who died last month at 87.
Adam Charlap Hyman and Andre Herrero, rising young design talents, are debuting a new, eclectic line of textiles.