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
CHARACTERISTICS OF POSTMODERN FURNITURE DESIGN
POSTMODERN FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW
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.
Vintage Decorative Shadow Box Art by Virgil Thrasher for Lucid Lines, 1972
By Joseph Cornell
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Vintage Decorative Shadow Box Art by Virgil Thrasher for Lucid Lines Culver City CA, 1972 "so kitsch ...... so good" "kitsch - considered to be in poor taste but appreciated in an...
Aluminum
$420 / item
Oak Wallie Wall Drawer by Amalie Skov Rahbæk
Located in Geneve, CH
Oak wallie wall drawer by Amalie Skov Rahbæk. Materials: oak, metal. Dimensions: D 22.5 x W 30 x H 10 cm. Available in oak, black oak or walnut. Amal...
Metal
Walnut Wallie Wall Drawer by Amalie Skov Rahbæk
Located in Geneve, CH
Walnut Wallie wall drawer by Amalie Skov Rahbæk Materials: Walnut, metal. Dimensions: D 22.5 x W 30 x H 10 cm Available in oak, black oak or walnut. ...
Metal
Black Oak Wallie Wall Drawer by Amalie Skov Rahbæk
Located in Geneve, CH
Black oak Wallie wall drawer by Amalie Skov Rahbæk Materials: Oak, metal. Dimensions: D 22.5 x W 30 x H 10 cm Available in oak, black oak or walnut. ...
Metal
$2,300
H 37.5 in W 33.5 in D 11 in
Antique English Plate Rack Wall Shelf Hanging Wall Decor Carved Oak 19th C
Located in Tyler, TX
CHARMING Antique English Oak Hanging Wall Shelf Plate Rack~~19th Century The perfect decorative accent piece for displaying your favorite Imari, Majolica, Staffordshire or other an...
Oak
Large Wall Hanging Shelving Unit in Solid Walnut by Elliott Marks
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Solid walnut shelving unit that hangs from wall. Hand selected premium hardwood finished in durable natural hard wax/ oil finish. The vertical frames attach to the wall and have slot...
Maple
$1,384
H 20.08 in W 15.75 in D 8.47 in
Antique 19th Century Neoclassical Wall Cabinet / Small Cabinet Carved Oak
Located in Ijzendijke, NL
Lovely antique 19th century Neoclassical wall cabinet / small cabinet Germany 1880. This German Grunderzeit cabinet is made from hand carved oak & is richly decorated. A true display of craftsmanship & quality. This cabinet has 2 doors and comes with a working lock & key. Its interior has 2 oak shelves. The cabinet has a very nice old restoration to the right side dating from the 1940s. A piece of furniture history with the right antique charm...
Brass
$2,513
H 24 in W 11.3 in D 6.1 in
Antique Fine Handcarved Oak Gothic Revival Wall Shrine / Chapel for Statuette
Located in Lisse, NL
Rare and good condition, Gothic-art shrine for standing or wall-hanging. This handsome and decorative, Gothic wall shrine is completely hand-crafted out of solid oak and it will look awesome, no matter where you decide to mount or place her. It must have taken its creator quite a few days to first draw this intricate design on paper and then hand carve the entire piece out of solid oak. The Gothic Style elements are deeply handcarved in both doors and they make this shrine highly decorative and an absolute joy to own and look at. This cabinet chapel (or chapel cabinet) comes with its brass lock in perfect working order and also with its original gothic style key. The handgrip is in fact a Gothic trefoil symbol (for the trinity). What also makes this piece extra attractive is the Gothic church window-like frame behind the doors. It is among the finest we have seen to date and on top of that this antique also has a beautiful and rich patina. By the way, the bronze Mary statuette is not included in our price. Finally, thanks to the hook in the back, mounting this antique chapel...
Brass
$3,600
H 13 in W 12.5 in D 4 in
Vintage Ron Fritts Signed Chrome, Wood, Plexi Pop Art Shadow Box Wall Sculpture
By Ron Fritts
Located in North Miami, FL
This eye-catching and rare vintage Ron Fritts Pop Art shadow box wall sculpture has suspended resin or lucite balls floating in four different window vignettes that change. The background is black Mylar plexiglass and the exterior wood is newly ebonized. The original labels on the back that says RF studios Inc. and a number. The silver interior balls jump around as you pick it up and rotate it and even turn it upside down. The components of the resin have slightly yellowed from age and sun exposure. There is also glue residue from age and coming apart. It is what it is...
Aluminum, Chrome
19th Century France Oak Wall Pedestal Shelf
Located in High Point, NC
19th Century French Oak Wall Pedestal Shelf. This finely carved wall-mounted shelf features a classical design inspired by Corinthian and Rococo motifs, with scrolling volutes and ac...
Oak
$1,495
H 17 in W 58.75 in D 13.25 in
Italian Mid Century Wall Cabinet In Walnut with Glass Doors and Interior Shelves
Located in Troy, MI
Found in Italy, this wall-mounted cabinet dates from the 1960s. Cabinet has a walnut base with sliding clear glass doors and glass interior shelves. Unknown maker.
Glass, Walnut
Large Vintage Carved Walnut French Wall Shelf
Located in Germantown, MD
Large 47 inches Vintage, hand carved walnut French wall shelf. Numbered item made in France exclusively for Bloomingdale in the 1960s. Very good ...
Walnut
$3,273
H 35.5 in W 18.5 in D 9.3 in
Architectural Gothic Revival Oak Wall Cabinet with Heraldic Carving
Located in Lisse, NL
Stunning and top quality carved Gothic cabinet from the late 1800s. An exceptionally refined wall-mounted cabinet in richly patinated oak, executed in a late 19th-century Gothic Rev...
Brass
$350
H 9.06 in W 24.81 in D 2.17 in
Antique Butterfly Collection Glass Shadow Box Wall Decoration, Spain, 1970
Located in Madrid, ES
Shadow box made in wood and glass containing a butterfly collection.
Glass, Wood
$766Sale Price|30% Off
H 32 in W 20.5 in D 7.5 in
Chinese Chippendale Mahogany Two Drawer Hanging Wall Shelf
Located in Germantown, MD
A cute Chinese Chippendale Mahogany Two Drawer Hanging Wall Shelf. Very Attractive and functional. Three shelves between open fret work sides for convenient and elegant organizatio...
Mahogany
$5,550 / item
H 10 in W 10 in D 42 in
Wall-Mounted Tidal Shelf in Black Powder-Coated Aluminum by Jonathan Nesci
Located in Columbus, IN
The wall-mounted, tidal shelf is formed out of 1/4 inch thick, powder-coated aluminum. Each shelf has a welded U-channel to the reverse of the shelf and ea...
Aluminum
Francisco Franco Original Installation, 12 Pieces
Located in North Miami, FL
This is a MONUMENTAL art installation comprised of 12 unique framed painted fiberglass panels in a continuous color formation by Spanish artist/painter, Francisco Franco. Completely ...
Fiberglass, Paper, Glass, Acrylic, Wood
Sold
H 23 in W 35 in D 2 in
1980s Mike McMahon Opioid Mixed-Media 'Take Two and Call Me In The Morning'
By Mike McMahon
Located in New Windsor, NY
The glaring social comment of this work back in the 1980s has morphed into our modern day epidemic. This mixed-media work by Mike McMahon is titled "Take Two and Call Me In The Morni...
Lucite, Plexiglass, Paper