Post-Modern Figurative Sculptures
POSTMODERN STYLE
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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Style: Post-Modern
Period: 1990s
Head-in-Hand 1990s Short Black and Silver Sculpture
Located in Chicago, IL
Head-in-Hand 1990s Short Black and Silver Sculpture
This sleek black and sliver painted wood sculpture depicts an arm with a stretched out hand on either end. A head balances on the...
Category
1990s Unknown Post-Modern Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Wood, Paint
Head-in-Hand 1990s Tall White Sculpture
Located in Chicago, IL
Head-in-Hand 1990s Tall White Sculpture
This white painted wood sculpture depicts an arm with a stretched out hand on either end. A head balances on the hand’s fingertips. The head ...
Category
1990s Unknown Post-Modern Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Wood, Paint
Randy Cooper, “Melanie”, Figural Wire Mesh Shadow Sculpture on Wood Base, 1998
Located in San Francisco, CA
An entrancing 1998 “Melanie” wire mesh screen figural shadow sculpture on black wood base by American artist Randy Cooper.
Extremely well-executed ne...
Category
1990s American Post-Modern Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Metal, Wire
Large Barrett DeBusk Postmodern Iron Sculpture / Valet Stand. Circa 1990s.
Located in Miami, FL
Large Barrett DeBusk Postmodern Iron Sculpture / Valet Stand. Circa 1990s. Signed by the artist.
Features a male figure formed with iron wire and painted in black.
I good original condition with signs of wear consistent with age and history. There is some oxidation at the base and some minor scratches in the paint in other areas. Please see close up pictures for more details.
About the Artist
Barrett Debusk (American 1955...
Category
1990s American Post-Modern Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Iron
Body Grid Sculpture by Tanya Ragir, Signed & Dated 1990, Edition 1/9
By Tanya Ragir
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Introducing the exquisite Body Grid Sculpture by acclaimed artist Tanya Ragir, a captivating piece that effortlessly combines intricate design with cont...
Category
1990s American Post-Modern Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Resin
Postmodern Black Tessellated Stone and Metal Sculpture
Located in Delray Beach, FL
Unveil the creativity of postmodern design with the Black Tessellated Stone and Metal Sculpture, a blend of intricate patterns and contrasting materials.
Composed of meticulously ar...
Category
1990s Philippine Post-Modern Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Stone, Metal
Robert Graham Koreen, 1993 Bronze Sculpture
Located in Mexico City, MX
A bronze sculpture with tripod base by Robert Graham, Mexican - American sculptor who lived in Los Angeles. The sculpture depicts a standing female figure with her arms behind her he...
Category
1990s American Post-Modern Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Bronze
Ugo La Pietra, "La Bagnante" Sculpture 25/29, Superego Editions, Italy, 1990
Located in Firenze, IT
“Bagnante” postmodern sculpture
Ugo La Pietra, Superego editions Italy, 1990
Large ceramic female bust modelled by casting. Polychrome craque...
Category
1990s Italian Post-Modern Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Ceramic
Postmodern Black Murano Glass Decorative Item of a Couple, Italy, 1990s
Located in Bresso, Lombardy
Made in Italy, 1990s.
This black Murano glass couple with a cyan detail in her ponytail looks like it's floating on a transparent glass ball.
It is...
Category
1990s Italian Post-Modern Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Murano Glass
Thierry Mugler Angel Etoile Collection Factice with Box
By Thierry Mugler
Located in San Diego, CA
Beautiful Thierry Mugler 2.6 fluid ounce “Etoile Collection” Eau de Parfum factice-dummy in mint condition. This piece comes in the factory box with molded stand. The piece has color...
Category
1990s French Post-Modern Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Glass, Plastic
Robert Graham bronze nude sculpture, /wall/table Title"Jennifer"4/10, 1996."RG"
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Great Wall mounted bronze sculpture by the late well known artist Robert Graham . This sculpture is title " Jennifer" and can be display in a stand as shown and plastic is not provid...
Category
1990s American Post-Modern Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Bronze
Italy, 1990, Post-Modern Abstract Bronze Sculpture by Filippo Panseca
Located in Brescia, IT
This is an interesting bronze sculpture multiple art work signed by the Italian artist Filippo Panseca. Title The secret of the Pharaoh
This is a multiple of a numbered edition of...
Category
1990s Italian Post-Modern Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Bronze
Modern Bronze of Mother and Child signed Devorah Sperber, 1993
Located in Lambertville, NJ
A modern bronze on black base of a stylized mother and child, signed Devorah Sperber 1993
Devorah Sperber was born in 1961 in Detroit, MI, and moved to Denver, Colorado at the age o...
Category
1990s North American Post-Modern Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Bronze
Robert Lee Morris "Ritual Bowl on a Bamboo Pyre" Sculpture
Located in New York, NY
Robert Lee Morris, "Ritual Bowl on Bamboo Pyre", 1990, Green patina oxidized brass, Signed
Category
1990s American Post-Modern Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Brass
Dancing Couple by Timmy Sandu, 1990s
Located in Philadelphia, PA
In Timmy Sandu's creation, a dark rapka stone transforms into a "Dancing Couple," a piece where absence speaks as loudly as presence. This sculpture captures a moment of cosmic jest,...
Category
1990s Zimbabwean Post-Modern Figurative Sculptures
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Stone
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Jim Rose
b. 1966, d. 2023
Bio
Born in Indiana, Jim Rose lived in Europe until he returned to the United States to attend college. After one year at Bard College, Jim transferred to the School of the Art Institute in Chicago (SAIC) where he graduated in 1988 with a BFA. His skillful interpretation of the Shaker design is a result of intense research and field study of Shaker furniture, architecture, culture and history. After over two decades of dedicated work, he has mastered the minimalism of the Shaker technique and created his own unique visual vernacular. The quilts of Gee's Bend have become a monumental influence taking this artist's work to new levels of unique interpretation and artistry. His selection of aged steel results in a patina directly related to that of aged wood while his colored strips beautifully mimic worn cloth. Each piece of furniture is masterfully made and intended for daily use. Jim Rose’s steel furniture is featured every year at SOFA Chicago for the past 25 years.
Jim Rose
b. 1966, Wisconsin
Education
1989 B.F.A., Sculpture, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL
1988 Student at Large, Welding Technology, Triton College, Chicago, IL
1985 Undergraduate Photography Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
Awards
2008 Wisconsin Arts Board Fellowship Award, Madison, WI.
2005 Elizabeth R. Raphael Founder’s Prize, Society for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, PA
2003 Grant Recipient for Shaker Interpretations in Cast Iron, PA Arts Assoc / WI Arts Board
2003 Arts/Industry Residency Program for Visual Artists, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Solo Exhibitions
2023 Jim Rose CODA, Gallery Victor, Chicago, IL
2020 Unseen, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL
2017 New Work, Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee, WI
2012 Simply Steel, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI
2007 Variation, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL
2003 New Work, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL
2001 Shaker in Steel / New Work, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL
2000 Shaker in Steel / New Work, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL
1999 Hands and Heart to Steel III, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL
National Exhibitions
2023 Intersect Palm Springs, Gallery Victor, Palm Springs, CA
2018 SOFA Chicago 2018, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL
Art Market Hamptons, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Bridgehampton, NY
Art on Paper, Gallery Victor, Metropolitan Pavilion, New York, NY
2017 - 2019 SOFA Chicago – Gallery Victor Armendariz
2016 - 1995 SOFA Chicago, New York, Palm Beach - Ann Nathan Gallery
2011 - 2002 Art Chicago - Ann Nathan Gallery
Group Exhibitions
2017 Coming Attractions: Inaugural Exhibition, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL
2017 Living with Art: The Newman Collection, 108 Contemporary, Tulsa, Oklahoma
2016 Form Follows Function: The Intersection of Art and Craft, The Hardy Gallery, Ephraim, Wi
2015 NEO, Chipstone Foundation, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
2015 ICFF, Furniture Society, Javits Convention Center, New York City, NY
2013 Vahki Revisited, The Enduring Spirit of a Craft Collection” Mesa Contemporary Arts,
Mesa, AZ
2013 Fearless Furniture, Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites, Indianapolis, IN
2013 Inaugural Exhibition, Museum Wisconsin of Art, West Bend, WI
2012 Sitting Pretty: Furniture from RAM’s Collection, Racine Art Museum, WI
2011 Hiding Places: Memory in the Arts, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, WI
2010 Living with Art, Strohl Art Center, Chautauqua Institution, NY
2009 Summer in Wisconsin, Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee, WI
2009 High Honors, James Watrous Gallery, Madison, WI
2008 Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary, Museum of Art and Design, NY
2007 Transformation 5: Contemporary Works in Found Materials, Art Association, Jackson, WY
2007 Transformation 5: Contemporary Works in Found Materials, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston, TX (traveling exhibition)
2006 Show us Your Drawers, Herron School of Art, Indianapolis, IN
2006 Marriage of the Minds...
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Postmodern lucite amber flame sculpture, 1983
Located in View Park, CA
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Postmodern Ceramic Fred Stodder Oval Vase in Green
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Pair of Postmodern Brass Sculptural Rectangle Vases
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Pair of Incredibly graphic brass postmodern sculptural vases. The vessels are rectangular, with simple lines that enhance the pair from functional to sculptural. These construction o...
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Bronze Curtis Jeré Elegant Women Figurine
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Pair of Compulsion Gallery 1994 Pewter Hands The Creation of Adam God Touching
Located in GB
We are delighted to offer for sale 1 of 2 pairs of Compulsion Gallery 1994 hands based on the painting by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapple depict...
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Pewter
H 3.94 in W 9.26 in D 1.07 in
Joseph Seigenthaler Acrylic Resin Fabric, Stoneware Sculpture, Signed Dated 1994
By Joseph Seigenthaler
Located in Los Angeles, CA
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Bruce Houston, Painted Sculpture, Frank Stella Truck, Pop Art, Signed
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Lifesize Maui and Sons Sharkman Shark Surfer with Surfboard, circa 1990
Located in Van Nuys, CA
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Post-modern figurative sculptures for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a broad range of unique Post-Modern figurative sculptures for sale on 1stDibs. Many of these items were first offered in the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artisans have continued to produce works inspired by this style. If you’re looking to add vintage figurative sculptures created in this style to your space, the works available on 1stDibs include decorative objects, serveware, ceramics, silver and glass, folk art and other home furnishings, frequently crafted with metal, ceramic and other materials. If you’re shopping for used Post-Modern figurative sculptures made in a specific country, there are Europe, North America, and Italy pieces for sale on 1stDibs. While there are many designers and brands associated with original figurative sculptures, popular names associated with this style include Tom von Kaenel, John Miller, Mirabili, and Riccardo Dalisi. It’s true that these talented designers have at times inspired knockoffs, but our experienced specialists have partnered with only top vetted sellers to offer authentic pieces that come with a buyer protection guarantee. Prices for figurative sculptures differ depending upon multiple factors, including designer, materials, construction methods, condition and provenance. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $73 and tops out at $168,000 while the average work can sell for $1,949.
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