Post-Modern Sofas
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 Sofas
Mohair
2010s Swiss Post-Modern Sofas
Brass
1980s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Sofas
Fabric
1980s Danish Vintage Post-Modern Sofas
Fabric
1980s American Vintage Post-Modern Sofas
Leather, Lucite
2010s Mexican Post-Modern Sofas
Steel
2010s Mexican Post-Modern Sofas
Fabric, Walnut
20th Century Swiss Post-Modern Sofas
Upholstery, Ultrasuede
2010s Mexican Post-Modern Sofas
Brass
2010s German Post-Modern Sofas
Upholstery, Teak
2010s Mexican Post-Modern Sofas
Brass
2010s Mexican Post-Modern Sofas
Brass
2010s Spanish Post-Modern Sofas
Plywood, Pine
2010s Mexican Post-Modern Sofas
Fabric, Teak
2010s Spanish Post-Modern Sofas
Iron, Copper
1990s American Post-Modern Sofas
Bouclé, Upholstery
2010s Swiss Post-Modern Sofas
Brass
2010s Swiss Post-Modern Sofas
Brass
2010s Mexican Post-Modern Sofas
Brass
2010s European Post-Modern Sofas
Velvet
1970s European Vintage Post-Modern Sofas
Metal
2010s Mexican Post-Modern Sofas
Brass
1980s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Sofas
Fabric, Bamboo, Rattan
2010s Mexican Post-Modern Sofas
Brass
2010s Saudi Arabian Post-Modern Sofas
Velvet, Wood
1980s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Sofas
Leather
2010s Portuguese Post-Modern Sofas
Velvet, Wood
Late 20th Century German Post-Modern Sofas
Leather
2010s Italian Post-Modern Sofas
Brass, Iron
2010s Swiss Post-Modern Sofas
Brass
1970s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Sofas
Leather, Wood
2010s Spanish Post-Modern Sofas
Copper, Iron
2010s Spanish Post-Modern Sofas
Pine
1960s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Sofas
Metal
2010s Swiss Post-Modern Sofas
Bouclé, Wood
2010s German Post-Modern Sofas
Upholstery, Teak
1990s Dutch Post-Modern Sofas
Leather
1970s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Sofas
Leather
2010s Swiss Post-Modern Sofas
Brass
1980s American Vintage Post-Modern Sofas
Steel
1980s American Vintage Post-Modern Sofas
Upholstery
1990s Italian Post-Modern Sofas
Metal
Mid-20th Century French Post-Modern Sofas
Stainless Steel
1970s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Sofas
Chrome
1970s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Sofas
Leather, Wood
Late 20th Century Italian Post-Modern Sofas
Brass
1980s Vintage Post-Modern Sofas
Brass
2010s Spanish Post-Modern Sofas
Copper, Steel
Mid-20th Century Italian Post-Modern Sofas
Steel
Late 20th Century Swiss Post-Modern Sofas
Leather
1970s American Vintage Post-Modern Sofas
Wool, Oak, Bentwood
1980s Spanish Vintage Post-Modern Sofas
Textile, Upholstery
1970s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Sofas
Chrome
1980s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Sofas
Leather
Early 2000s American Post-Modern Sofas
Leather
1970s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Sofas
Chrome
1970s Italian Vintage Post-Modern Sofas
Velvet
2010s Mexican Post-Modern Sofas
Brass