1990s Post Modern
1990s Post-Modern Table Lamps
Ceramic
1990s French Post-Modern Sideboards
Bronze
Late 20th Century Italian Post-Modern Sheffield and Silverplate
Silver Plate
1990s European Post-Modern Armchairs
Aluminum
1990s American Shelves
Steel
20th Century Post-Modern Lounge Chairs
Beech
1990s American Post-Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Chrome
1990s Italian Post-Modern Dining Room Chairs
Metal
1990s American Post-Modern Side Tables
Aluminum
1990s Post-Modern Swivel Chairs
Fabric, Wood
1990s French Industrial Chandeliers and Pendants
Steel
1990s Belgian Post-Modern Dining Room Chairs
Metal
1990s Italian Post-Modern Dining Room Chairs
Faux Leather
1990s American Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Sandstone
1990s Italian Post-Modern Dining Room Tables
Burl, Lacquer
1990s Italian Post-Modern Sofas
Leather, Wood
Late 20th Century American Post-Modern Sofas
Steel, Chrome
Late 20th Century Philippine Post-Modern Candlesticks
Travertine
1990s American Post-Modern Dry Bars
Wood
1990s American Post-Modern Decorative Baskets
Metal, Aluminum
1990s French Post-Modern Sectional Sofas
Fabric, Wood
Late 20th Century Philippine Post-Modern Obelisks
Shagreen, Felt, Shagreen Stingray
1990s Italian Post-Modern Floor Lamps
Chrome
1990s Italian Post-Modern Dining Room Chairs
Steel
1990s American Post-Modern Vases
Ceramic
1990s Italian Post-Modern Floor Lamps
Metal
1990s British Post-Modern Floor Lamps
Metal
1990s Italian Post-Modern Benches
Metal
1990s European Post-Modern Armchairs
Metal, Steel
1990s American Post-Modern Vases
Ceramic
1990s Italian Serving Bowls
Glass
1990s Post-Modern Sofas
Velvet
1990s American Post-Modern Sofas
Bouclé, Upholstery
1990s Italian Post-Modern Ceramics
Ceramic
1990s Unknown Post-Modern Stools
Chrome
Late 20th Century Post-Modern Figurative Sculptures
Canvas
1990s Colombian Post-Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Goatskin
1990s French Post-Modern Table Lamps
Brass
1990s American Post-Modern Dining Room Chairs
Lucite, Upholstery
Late 20th Century Post-Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Wood
20th Century Post-Modern Figurative Sculptures
Brass
Late 20th Century Post-Modern Chairs
Leather
1990s Italian Post-Modern Bookends
Marble
1990s Japanese Post-Modern Table Lamps
Iron
20th Century American Post-Modern Ceramics
Ceramic
Late 20th Century Chinese Post-Modern More Dining and Entertaining
Ceramic
1990s Belgian Post-Modern Table Lamps
Plastic
1990s English Post-Modern Contemporary Art
Paper
1990s German Post-Modern Floor Lamps
Metal
1990s North American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Aluminum, Steel
Late 20th Century Post-Modern Living Room Sets
Chrome
Late 20th Century American Post-Modern Barware
Cork, Ceramic, Wood
Late 20th Century Post-Modern Swivel Chairs
Fabric
Vintage 1980s Italian Post-Modern Credenzas
Metal
1990s American Post-Modern Vases
Ceramic
1990s Italian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Upholstery, Wood
20th Century American Post-Modern Cabinets
Laminate, Wood
1990s French Post-Modern Table Lamps
Ceramic, Fabric
Late 20th Century Post-Modern Lounge Chairs
Velvet
1990s Post-Modern Center Tables
Lacquer
- 1
- ...
1990s Post Modern For Sale on 1stDibs
How Much is a 1990s Post Modern?
A Close Look at post-modern Furniture
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.
- 1stDibs ExpertApril 15, 2024Famous fashion designers in the 1990s include Vivienne Westwood, Miuccia Prada, Jean Paul Gaultier and Thierry Mugler.
For collectors and fashion lovers all over the world, ‘90s fashion has become associated with styles adopted by today’s supermodels and influencers, who never wear the same thing twice. And because fast fashion didn’t yet exist, 1990s fashion trends and apparel — vintage '90s clothing, handbags and accessories — have a quality appreciated by the millennial generation: authenticity.
Find 1990s Chanel bags, Moschino pants, Margiela jackets and other vintage garments and accessories on 1stDibs. - 1stDibs ExpertJanuary 23, 2024How much Chanel bags cost in the 1990s varied from piece to piece and from year to year. For example, in 1990, the iconic Chanel flap bag's price was $1,150. When adjusted for inflation, that is around $2,280 in today's money. Shop a diverse assortment of Chanel bags on 1stDibs.
- 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022Cannot find an answer
Read More
This Rare Set of 100 Alessi Vases Includes Designs by Scores of International Artists
Alessandro Mendini, Michael Graves, Ettore Sottsass and other design luminaries contributed to this unusual collection of porcelain wares representing a time capsule of late-20th-century decorative art.
29 Incredible Pools
It's hard to resist the allure of a beautiful pool, even if you don't particularly care for swimming. So go ahead and daydream about whiling away your summer in paradise.
Remembering Alessandro Mendini, a Towering Figure in Italian Design
Aided by photos taken of the maestro in his Milan studio, we honor the influential design talent who died last month at 87.
This Hotshot Duo Is the Design World’s Next Big Thing
Adam Charlap Hyman and Andre Herrero, rising young design talents, are debuting a new, eclectic line of textiles.