Post Modern Parson
Vintage 1970s Unknown Post-Modern Benches
Velvet
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Sofas
Upholstery
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Benches
Bouclé, Upholstery
Vintage 1980s Canadian Post-Modern End Tables
Laminate
1990s American Post-Modern Dining Room Chairs
Fabric
Vintage 1970s American Post-Modern Benches
Velvet
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Ottomans and Poufs
Upholstery
Late 20th Century Unknown Modern Armchairs
Faux Leather
Vintage 1980s Italian Post-Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Travertine
Vintage 1980s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Fabric
21st Century and Contemporary Post-Modern Console Tables
Wood, Paint
Vintage 1980s Post-Modern Lounge Chairs
Upholstery
Mid-20th Century Unknown Post-Modern Console Tables
Formica
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Dining Room Chairs
Fabric, Upholstery, Wood
20th Century American Post-Modern Dining Room Chairs
Fabric
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Armchairs
Textile
Vintage 1970s American Post-Modern Console Tables
Upholstery
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Dining Room Chairs
Fabric
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Ottomans and Poufs
Upholstery, Wood
Vintage 1970s American Post-Modern Console Tables
Upholstery, Wood
Vintage 1970s American Post-Modern Ottomans and Poufs
Upholstery, Wood
20th Century American Post-Modern Dining Room Chairs
Fabric
Mid-20th Century American Post-Modern Dining Room Chairs
Upholstery
Vintage 1980s Unknown Post-Modern End Tables
Plastic, Acrylic
Vintage 1970s American Post-Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Leather, Wood, Lacquer, Shagreen Stingray
20th Century American Post-Modern Dining Room Chairs
Fabric
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
Mid-20th Century Unknown Post-Modern Console Tables
Wood
Late 20th Century Unknown Post-Modern Dining Room Tables
Laminate
Recent Sales
Vintage 1980s Post-Modern Lounge Chairs
Fabric
Vintage 1970s Lounge Chairs
Velvet
Vintage 1980s American Dining Room Chairs
Upholstery
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Loveseats
Upholstery, Velvet
Vintage 1980s Post-Modern Dining Room Tables
Wood, Lacquer
20th Century North American Post-Modern Stools
Chrome
Vintage 1970s American Post-Modern Console Tables
Laminate, Formica
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Club Chairs
Faux Leather
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Slipper Chairs
Upholstery
Vintage 1970s American Post-Modern Console Tables
Upholstery
Late 20th Century Post-Modern Club Chairs
Fabric, Wood
Vintage 1970s American Post-Modern End Tables
Bamboo, Wicker, Rattan
Vintage 1970s American Post-Modern Console Tables
Walnut, Burl
Late 20th Century Post-Modern Chairs
Fabric, Wood
20th Century American Post-Modern Dining Room Tables
Wood
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Dining Room Tables
Wood, Lacquer
Vintage 1970s Italian Post-Modern Side Tables
Travertine, Marble
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Stools
Fabric
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Dining Room Chairs
Fabric, Upholstery, Wood
20th Century American Post-Modern Side Tables
Wood
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Dining Room Chairs
Fabric
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Dining Room Chairs
Fabric
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Dining Room Chairs
Fabric
Vintage 1970s American Post-Modern Benches
Fabric
Vintage 1970s Unknown Post-Modern Lounge Chairs
Cotton, Silk, Velvet
Vintage 1970s Unknown Post-Modern Console Tables
Copper, Chrome
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Dining Room Chairs
Fabric
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Lounge Chairs
Upholstery
Vintage 1960s American Post-Modern Benches
Brass
Mid-20th Century American Post-Modern Lounge Chairs
Wool
20th Century American Post-Modern Console Tables
Wood, Burl
Late 20th Century Post-Modern Console Tables
Laminate, Wood
Late 20th Century Post-Modern Ottomans and Poufs
Leather, Mohair
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Benches
Upholstery, Wood
Vintage 1980s Post-Modern End Tables
Laminate
Vintage 1970s American Hollywood Regency Dining Room Tables
Burl
Late 20th Century Post-Modern Club Chairs
Fabric, Wood
Vintage 1980s Post-Modern Console Tables
Mahogany
Vintage 1980s Colombian Post-Modern Console Tables
Bone
Vintage 1970s Spanish Post-Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Iron, Gold Leaf
Vintage 1970s American Post-Modern Lounge Chairs
Velvet, Wood
Mid-20th Century American Post-Modern Console Tables
Wood, Paint
Late 20th Century American Post-Modern Dining Room Chairs
Upholstery
Vintage 1980s Italian Post-Modern Console Tables
Travertine
Vintage 1970s American Post-Modern Slipper Chairs
Velvet
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Club Chairs
Suede
Vintage 1980s Post-Modern Sectional Sofas
Upholstery
Mid-20th Century American Post-Modern Console Tables
Travertine
Vintage 1970s American Post-Modern Side Tables
Formica, Laminate, Paper, Resin, Wood
People Also Browsed
Mid-20th Century American Modern Dressers
Brass, Stainless Steel
Late 20th Century Mid-Century Modern Sofas
Upholstery, Wood
Vintage 1980s Canadian Post-Modern Lounge Chairs
Velvet
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Pillows and Throws
Velvet
2010s Italian Mid-Century Modern Stools
Hardwood, Ash
Late 20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Wardrobes and Armoires
Glass, Wood, Oak
Vintage 1970s Danish Scandinavian Modern Office Chairs and Desk Chairs
Upholstery, Beech, Plywood
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Sofas
Velvet
Vintage 1980s American Louis XVI Bookcases
Brass
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Suede
Early 20th Century French Chinoiserie Screens and Room Dividers
Wood, Mother-of-Pearl
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Swivel Chairs
Fabric, Walnut
Mid-20th Century Belgian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Chrome
Early 20th Century Indian Anglo-Indian Screens and Room Dividers
Teak
Mid-20th Century French Chippendale Dining Room Chairs
2010s Dutch Modern Decorative Bowls
Travertine
Post Modern Parson For Sale on 1stDibs
How Much is a Post Modern Parson?
A Close Look at Post-modern Furniture
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
- Emerges during the 1960s; popularity explodes during the ’80s
- A reaction to prevailing conventions of modernism by mainly American architects
- Architect Robert Venturi critiques modern architecture in his Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966)
- Theorist Charles Jencks, who championed architecture filled with allusions and cultural references, writes The Language of Post-Modern Architecture (1977)
- Italian design collective the Memphis Group, also known as Memphis Milano, meets for the first time (1980)
- Memphis collective debuts more than 50 objects and furnishings at Salone del Milano (1981)
- Interest in style declines, minimalism gains steam
CHARACTERISTICS OF POSTMODERN FURNITURE DESIGN
- Dizzying graphic patterns and an emphasis on loud, off-the-wall colors
- Use of plastic and laminates, glass, metal and marble; lacquered and painted wood
- Unconventional proportions and abundant ornamentation
- Playful nods to Art Deco and Pop art
POSTMODERN FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW
- Ettore Sottsass
- Robert Venturi
- Alessandro Mendini
- Michele de Lucchi
- Michael Graves
- Nathalie du Pasquier
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.
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This Rare Set of 100 Alessi Vases Includes Designs by Scores of International Artists
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.
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