Postmodern Design
Strictly speaking, postmodern design was a short-lived movement that manifested itself chiefly in Italy and the United States in the early 1980s. Objects produced by postmodern practitioners were characterized by hot-colored, loud-patterned, usually plastic surfaces; strange proportions and weird angles; and a vague-at-best relationship between form and function. Critics derided postmodern design as a grandstanding bid for attention and nothing of consequence. The fact that, decades later, postmodern design still has the power to provoke thoughts (along with other reactions) proves they were not entirely correct.
Postmodernism 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. In the next decade in Milan, a cohort of designers led by Ettore Sottsass and Alessandro Mendini brought the discussion to bear on design. Sottsass and Michele de Lucchi, in 1980, gathered a core group of young designers, which would come to include Michael Graves, Marco Zanini, Shiro Kuramata and Matteo Thun, into a design collective they called Memphis. They saw design as a means of communication and they wanted it to shout. That it did: the first Memphis collection appeared in 1981 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. After the initial Memphis show caused an uproar, postmodern design quickly took off in America. The architect Robert Venturi had 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.
Many of the pieces mentioned above formed the core of a 2011 survey of postmodern design at the Victoria & Albert Museum — an exhibition that showed the movement's influence on contemporary design and fashion. That fact, coupled with the works offered on these pages, proves that postmodernism is a movement that continues to inspire.
2010s Italian Modern Postmodern Design
Ceramic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Postmodern Design
Gold, Chrome, Metal
1980s Italian Memphis Group Vintage Postmodern Design
Ceramic
1980s Italian Memphis Group Vintage Postmodern Design
Porcelain
1980s Italian Memphis Group Vintage Postmodern Design
Ceramic
1980s Italian Memphis Group Vintage Postmodern Design
Ceramic
20th Century Italian Postmodern Design
Porcelain
Late 20th Century Italian Post-Modern Postmodern Design
Glass, Art Glass, Murano Glass
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Postmodern Design
Porcelain
2010s Argentine Modern Postmodern Design
Ceramic, Pottery, Clay
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Postmodern Design
Metal, Enamel
Late 20th Century Italian Post-Modern Postmodern Design
Glass, Art Glass, Murano Glass
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Postmodern Design
Ceramic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Postmodern Design
Murano Glass
2010s Spanish Mid-Century Modern Postmodern Design
Ceramic
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Postmodern Design
Metal
2010s Italian Mid-Century Modern Postmodern Design
Aluminum, Stainless Steel
1920s Belgian Art Deco Vintage Postmodern Design
Ceramic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Postmodern Design
Ceramic
Read More
African Travel Plans on Hold? This Ardmore Leopard Vase Brings the Beauty of the Savanna to You
It’s an excellent example of the sought-after ceramics coming out of South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province.
With a High-Tech Flagship and Cool Collabs, Lladró Is Breaking the Mold for Porcelain Production
Thanks to its new leadership, the Spanish maker of figurines, busts and lighting is on a mission to update the art of porcelain for the 21st century.
Zoë Powell’s Magnolia 05 Vessel Is Handmade from Clay She Unearthed Herself
The free-form stoneware piece is inspired by the magnolia tree and its associations with home.
8 Ways to Breathe New Life into a Space with Plants
The pair behind the Instagram account @houseplantclub share their tips for making any room of the house gloriously green.
Paris Gallerist Sandy Toupenet Gets Fired Up over 20th-Century Ceramics and Inventive New Makers
Her space on the city’s Left Bank mixes mid-century pieces by the likes of Jean Cocteau and Pablo Picasso with whimsical contemporary creations.
These Soft Sculptures Are Childhood Imaginary Friends Come to Life
Miami artist and designer Gabriela Noelle’s fantastical creations appeal to the Peter Pan in all of us.
This Vivacious Teapot Has Agnes Martin on One Side and Jean-Michel Basquiat on the Other
Ceramist Roberto Lugo brings a street-art sensibility to a dainty serving vessel while paying homage to his artistic heroes.
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.