Memphis Style Post Modern Executive Desk by Dakota Jackson, 1980s
View Similar Items
Memphis Style Post Modern Executive Desk by Dakota Jackson, 1980s
About the Item
- Creator:Dakota Jackson (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 29.5 in (74.93 cm)Width: 30 in (76.2 cm)Depth: 74 in (187.96 cm)
- Style:Post-Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:1980-1989
- Date of Manufacture:1980s
- Condition:Refinished. Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Hamburg, PA
- Reference Number:Seller: 87251stDibs: LU926915634672
Dakota Jackson
Today, Dakota Jackson’s luxury chairs, sofas, tables and other pieces are known for their stylish and expressive forms, so it’s perhaps not a surprise that the American contemporary furniture designer has spent a lifetime immersed in the arts.
Born to a family of professional magicians, Jackson was raised in a household that had a flair for the dramatic. A young Dakota moved to Manhattan and mingled with the bustling creative scene. There, he studied minimalist dance at multiple companies, performed with an experimental theater group and worked in special effects. His fascination with illusion and drama seeped into his creative inclinations, especially when he decided to shift his artistic energy toward furniture.
Jackson’s foray into design began in the 1970s when he got his hands dirty during the build-out of his loft apartment in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood back when lofts weren’t quite the heavenly residences of today. He constructed his own walls and bathroom fixtures and worked with a variety of materials that included lacquered wood, leather and chrome-plated steel, crafting intriguing seating and case pieces that would later end up in museums. (His famed Library chair is part of the collection at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.)
Jackson’s work became so well known throughout the buzzing art scene that he garnered the attention of reputable antique dealers who enlisted him to restore their own pieces of furniture. In 1974, Yoko Ono became a client. She commissioned Jackson to design a desk for John Lennon’s birthday. After he finished the former Beatle’s custom piece — an unconventional Art Deco–style writing desk that mirrored a Chinese puzzle box with secret compartments and hidden drawers — celebrities flocked to Jackson like bees to honey, and his name became synonymous with immaculate craftsmanship as well as the era’s radical American Art Furniture movement, which drew on Surrealism, Pop art and other traditions.
Even Belgian fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg asked Jackson to create the now-famous Eclipse bed, a sensual, striking structure framed in glossy cherrywood and upholstered in satin. In 1978, the lifelong arts lover paired a piano factory with his furniture manufacturing company and collaborated with Steinway & Sons on the design of several limited-edition pianos over the years. Today, Dakota Jackson, Inc., counts massive corporations among his clients and continues to design new collections.
Find a collection of Dakota Jackson furniture on 1stDibs.
- Whimsical Post Modern Camel Themed Side Table, 1980sBy Maitland SmithLocated in Hamburg, PAA whimsical Post-Modern side table with a glass top and brass accent. This camel-themed black lacquered side table or cocktail table is made of hand-carved wood. The occasional table...Category
Vintage 1980s Post-Modern Side Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Stainless Steel and Burl Wood Desk by Leon Rosen for Pace, 1980sBy Leon Rosen, Pace Furniture CompanyLocated in Hamburg, PAA monumental Demi Lune Executive's Desk designed by Leon Rosen for Pace. This stunning desk has matchbook burl wood veneer which creates a beautiful surface. The warmth of the wood w...Category
Vintage 1980s American Mid-Century Modern Desks
MaterialsStainless Steel
- Postmodern Waterfall Bench by Milo Baughman for Thayer Coggin, 1980sBy Thayer Coggin, Milo BaughmanLocated in Hamburg, PAA chic Waterfall Vanity Bench or Bench designed by Milo Baughman for Thayer Coggin, 1980s. This Post-Modern bench has a chrome stretcher base and brass roller feet. It would look gre...Category
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Benches
MaterialsBrass, Chrome
- Post Modern Sectional Sofa designed by Milo Baughman for Thayer Coggin, 1990By Milo Baughman, Thayer CogginLocated in Hamburg, PAA Post-Modern sectional sofa designed by Milo Baughman for Thayer Coggin. This fabulous sofa came out of a period home and was custom-made circa 1990. This large sofa has additional ...Category
1990s American Post-Modern Sectional Sofas
MaterialsUpholstery
- Onyx and Stainless Steel Nesting Tables by Brueton, 1980sBy BruetonLocated in Hamburg, PAA gorgeous set of three stainless steel and onyx nesting tables by Brueton. This aesthetically pleasing set of side tables is very functional. This set came out of a high-end executi...Category
Vintage 1980s American Mid-Century Modern Nesting Tables and Stacking Ta...
MaterialsOnyx, Stainless Steel
- Monumental Mirror and Console Table by Ilana Goor, 1980sBy Ilana GoorLocated in Hamburg, PAA monumental mirror and console table by Ilana Goor. The mirror and console table are constructed out of concrete reinforcing bars with natural verdigris finish. The bronze bird and ...Category
Vintage 1980s Israeli Mid-Century Modern Wall Mirrors
MaterialsBronze, Steel
- Dakota Jackson French Art Deco Postmodern Mahogany Executive Partners Desk 96"By Dakota JacksonLocated in Dayton, OHVintage Dakota Jackson post modern Art Deco style executive partners desk featuring mahogany with leather insert and stainless steel frame. A V-Shape pattern veneer top with Black Leather inset. 2 pedestal cabinets below: each with 2 standard drawers and 1 file drawer, front and back. Polished Stainless Steel drawer pulls, post, floor plates, and arced trestle supporting desktop. DJ Chelsea Black Leather, Polished Polyresin finish. Dakota Jackson (born August 24, 1949) is an American furniture designer known for his eponymous furniture brand, Dakota Jackson, Inc.,[1] his early avant-garde works involving moving parts or hidden compartments,[2][3] and his collaborations with the Steinway & Sons piano company.[1] Jackson helped establish the art furniture movement in 1970s SoHo,[4][5] later becoming a celebrity designer in the 1980s.[6][7][8] His background in the world of stage magic helped him get his first commissions and is often cited as the source of his point-of-view.[6][9] Early life Dakota Jackson was born on August 24, 1949, and grew up in the Rego Park neighborhood of Queens, New York. Stage Magic Jackson's father, Jack Malon, was a professional magician.[10] Mr. Malon learned the trade from his own father, who studied stage magic in early 20th century Poland.[1] Jackson began studying magic at a young age and sometimes performed with his father.[11] Jackson's name, in fact, grew out of a road trip to Fargo, North Dakota.[11] Throughout his adolescence and into his early 20s, Jackson immersed himself in the world of magic.[2] In 1963, Jackson began to perform in talent shows at his junior high school, William Cowper JHS 73 (which is known today as The Frank Sansivieri Intermediate School),[12] and at children's birthday parties.[13] Jackson also began to build his own props, including large boxes for sawing a woman in half and small boxes from which doves would emerge in full flight.[11] Jackson acknowledges the importance of these early experiences with magic to his later career as a furniture designer: "The demands of performance taught me how to discipline myself to achieve aesthetic ends."[1][2][14] After Jackson graduated from Forest Hills High School in 1967, he continued performing as a magician, working in art galleries, night clubs, touring in the Catskills, and giving private performances at society events.[2][13][15] When he was 17, Jackson had studied with magician Jack London to learn the dangerous bullet catch trick.[16] "What appealed to me was the notion of doing things that appeared miraculous" Jackson once recalled.[6] "I was interested in spiritualism. I was interested in things like bullet catching, things that really challenged individual sensibilities, that were frightening, on the edge."[2] He didn't find the opportunity to perform the trick publicly until a decade later at Jackson's final professional performance as a magician.[1] It was documented in Andy Warhol's Interview (magazine), in a story titled "Dakota Jackson bites the bullet."[1][16] Jackson admits that he sometimes tires of references to his magician background, although he acknowledges it as an important part of his history.[2] The Downtown Arts Scene In the late 1960s, Jackson moved into a loft on 28th Street in Chelsea.[1][17] Jackson became part of the Downtown scene, a community of "artists, dancers, performers, and musicians" who moved to the neighborhood for the cheap rent and social life.[1][8][17][18] In October 1970, Jackson performed with the Japanese group Tokyo Kid Brothers at New York's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (also known as Café La MaMa) in a rock musical production called "Coney Island Play" ("Konī airando purē).[19] The show explored themes of cross-cultural communication and understanding[19] and was a follow up to the group's debut performance of "The Golden Bat" at La MaMa earlier that summer.[20][21][22] Jackson played the part of a "clever conjurer."[19] Over the next few years, Jackson became interested in minimalist dance and performed in the dance companies of Laura Dean and Trisha Brown.[2][15][23] Jackson credits his exposure to minimalism and minimalist dance in particular as having had a strong influence on his approach to design; in 1989, Jackson told the Los Angeles Times: For me the essential fineness of a design is in the idea, not the object itself ... In minimalism, the object is pared down to its basic meaning by stripping away all the excrescence ... —those elements that do not contribute to the pure idea.[24] Design career In the early 1970s, as he experimented with performance and dance, Jackson began branching out as a special effects consultant to other magicians, film producers, and musicians[2][23] such as Donna Summer.[6][9] The loft also gave Jackson an opportunity to apply his creativity and building skills: "These were times when lofts were not ... luxury condominiums. These were tough, tough raw spaces ... and we artists, bohemians, creative people, we created our environment. So I had to build".[17][25] Recognizing his skills as a builder, Jackson decided to shift away from performance and become a full-time maker.[1][15][17] He began making a variety of objects, including furnishings for other artists and magic boxes with hidden compartments for art collectors and galleries.[17][24] Jackson's social connections helped spread word about his work[15] and this led to his first commissions.[1] Early Commissions Desk for John Lennon by Dakota Jackson In 1974, Jackson's career as a designer began when Yoko Ono asked him to build a desk with hidden compartments for husband John Lennon.[26] "She wanted to make a piece of furniture that would be a mystical object; that would be like a Chinese puzzle," Jackson recalled in a 1986 interview published in the Chicago Tribune.[6] The result was a small cubed-shaped writing table with rounded corners reminiscent of Art Deco era style.[15] Touching secret pressure points opened the desk's compartments.[23] This commission helped build Jackson's reputation and allowed him to merge his experience as a magician and performer with his developing interest in furniture.[27] In 1978, a bed designed for fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg garnered Jackson even more notoriety.[8][10][28] [29] Called "The Eclipse", the bed was described in The New Yorker as "large, astounding, sumptuous, with sunbursts of cherry wood and quilted ivory satin at head and foot."[10] A lighting system positioned behind the headboard switched on automatically at sunset and spread out rays of light "like an aurora borealis,"[2][17] which grew brighter and brighter until turning off at 2 am.[23][30] Commissions like these continued to come in[8] and Jackson soon became known as a designer to the rich and famous.[30] Some of his other clients from this period included songwriter Peter Allen, Saturday Night Live creator and producer Lorne Michaels, Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, and soap opera actress Christine Jones.[8] The American Art Furniture Movement and the Industrial Style In the late 1970s, Jackson was among a small group of artists and artisans producing and exhibiting hand-made furniture in New York.[5][31] Jackson and his peers were part of the "American Art Furniture Movement," a group sometimes called the "Art et Industrie Movement,"[32] named after the leading art furniture gallery of the era,[32] Art et Industrie, founded by Rick Kaufmann in 1976.[33] In a 1984 Town & Country article titled "Art You Can Sit On," Kaufmann said he created the gallery to "serve as a locus to the public for artists and designers creating new decorative arts."[31] The works on display were "radical objects" that drew from a number of fine art traditions, including "Pop, Surrealism, Pointillism and Dada [which were] "thrown together with the severe lines of the Bauhaus and the Russian avant-garde, mixed with Mondrian's color and filtered through a video sensibility—all to create a new statement."[31] The article described Jackson as a "ten-year veteran of the genre" and pointed to the "clean forms and quiet colors" of his furniture.[4] Jackson showed a variety of industrial-looking lacquer, metal, and glass works at Art et Industrie, including his Standing Bar (also known as the Modern Bar),[33] a lacquered cabinet that Jackson designed in 1978 for his wife (then-girlfriend) RoseLee Goldberg.[13] Other works from this period include the T-Bird Desk, Self-Winding Cocktail Table, and the Saturn Stool...Category
Late 20th Century Art Deco Desks and Writing Tables
MaterialsStainless Steel
- Post modern Memphis style artistic writing desk and chair, Germany 1980sBy Memphis Group, Gaetano Pesce, Ettore SottsassLocated in ECHT, NLUnique artistic writing desk and chair. The frame is made from steel and wrought iron in different shapes and sizes. Painted in several different colors. The glass top rest on 4 wood...Category
Late 20th Century German Post-Modern Desks and Writing Tables
MaterialsMetal
- Post modernist desk, 1980sBy Massimo and Lella VignelliLocated in JASSANS-RIOTTIER, FRDesk from the 80s in France - Red laminate box with 3 drawers on the left - Black lacquered pyramid on the right - Rectangular glass top In the manner of Kono model from Lella and Ma...Category
Late 20th Century French Desks and Writing Tables
MaterialsGlass, Laminate
- 1980s Postmodern Marble Stone Executive Two Sided DeskBy Karl SpringerLocated in Madison, WIIncredible 1980s Postmodern Marble designer desk. Great for use as an executive desk or a two sided desk. The black pieces supporting the marble writing...Category
Late 20th Century American Post-Modern Desks and Writing Tables
MaterialsMarble
- Danish Post-War Rosewood Executive DeskLocated in New York, NYDanish Post-War Design rosewood executive desk with a low gallery on 3 sides and 3 drawers on one side and a single drawer on the other.Category
20th Century Danish Post-Modern Desks and Writing Tables
MaterialsRosewood
- Postmodern Memphis Design Interlubke Writing Desk, Home Office, Germany 1980sBy InterlübkeLocated in Zagreb, HRStunning Memphis design style postmodern desk manufactured in the 1980s in Germany by a high-end furniture company Interlubke The desk is a pure example of Memphis's design. It'...Category
Vintage 1980s German Post-Modern Desks and Writing Tables
MaterialsMetal