Post-Modern Armchairs
Strictly speaking, postmodern design was a short-lived movement that manifested itself chiefly in Italy and the United States in the early 1980s. The characteristics of postmodern furniture and other postmodern objects included 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. The Memphis Group 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.
On 1stDibs, the collection of postmodern furniture includes seating, decorative objects, lighting fixtures and more.
1970s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Steel
2010s Italian Post-Modern Armchairs
Steel
2010s Spanish Post-Modern Armchairs
Upholstery, Foam, Wood
Late 20th Century Dutch Post-Modern Armchairs
Steel
Late 20th Century Italian Post-Modern Armchairs
Leather, Wood, Down
21st Century and Contemporary Brazilian Post-Modern Armchairs
Aluminum
1980s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Leather
1980s Spanish Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Leather, Walnut
2010s Finnish Post-Modern Armchairs
Birch, Plywood
2010s Finnish Post-Modern Armchairs
Birch, Plywood
1970s American Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Chrome
1970s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Steel
1980s American Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Fabric, Rattan
1980s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Leather
1990s American Post-Modern Armchairs
Plywood
1980s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Steel, Chrome
20th Century French Post-Modern Armchairs
Velvet, Walnut
2010s Finnish Post-Modern Armchairs
Oak
2010s Dutch Post-Modern Armchairs
Plastic, Leather, Clay
2010s French Post-Modern Armchairs
Wood, Oak
1980s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Steel
21st Century and Contemporary Brazilian Post-Modern Armchairs
Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Brazilian Post-Modern Armchairs
Aluminum
1970s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Metal, Steel
2010s Singaporean Post-Modern Armchairs
Fabric, Teak
1950s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Upholstery, Wood
20th Century Danish Post-Modern Armchairs
Leather, Teak
1980s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Leather, Upholstery
2010s Brazilian Post-Modern Armchairs
Stainless Steel
2010s Spanish Post-Modern Armchairs
Upholstery
2010s Singaporean Post-Modern Armchairs
Fabric, Teak
1970s American Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Chrome
2010s Thai Post-Modern Armchairs
Brass
Late 20th Century Italian Post-Modern Armchairs
Metal
2010s Swiss Post-Modern Armchairs
Suede
1980s American Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Fabric
1980s Belgian Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Leather, Wood
1980s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Leather, Beech
1980s American Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Maple
2010s Finnish Post-Modern Armchairs
Oak
Late 20th Century Italian Post-Modern Armchairs
Steel
1980s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Fabric, Bamboo, Rattan
2010s Brazilian Post-Modern Armchairs
Stainless Steel
Late 20th Century Italian Post-Modern Armchairs
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary French Post-Modern Armchairs
Aluminum
2010s Spanish Post-Modern Armchairs
Iron
1980s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Steel
1980s European Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Metal
1980s European Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Faux Leather, Wood
2010s Spanish Post-Modern Armchairs
Iron
2010s Dutch Post-Modern Armchairs
Leather, Epoxy Resin
2010s Spanish Post-Modern Armchairs
Iron
2010s French Post-Modern Armchairs
Bronze, Steel
1990s American Post-Modern Armchairs
Metal
Late 20th Century European Post-Modern Armchairs
Leather, Oak
1980s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Steel
1980s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Armchairs
Steel
2010s Italian Post-Modern Armchairs
Brass, Iron