Postmodern Furniture: Facts You Should Know

Among the most well-liked fashion movements that emerged in America in the middle of the 1960s was the postmodern movement in design. Postmodern furniture is furniture designed in a postmodern style. Continue reading, you will learn more about postmodern furniture.

What is the Postmordern Funiture?

Postmodernism is a period that marked the In final years of the 20th century, there was a European movement in art, philosophy, movement, and architecture. In the latter half of the 20th century, postmodern art essentially emerged. It also emphasizes some aspects of the artistic movement and the way people thought at the time.

Postmodern furniture was light-hearted and whimsical, meaning that the designers looked for form over functionality in their work to match the new postmodernist movement. Their reasoning was that after revolutionizing both art and architecture, it was only fair that the couch follows suit.

What is the Postmodern Furniture History?

The development of the postmodern style in design and its widespread adoption can be attributed to postmodernism’s rising notoriety in other disciplines like literature, art, and architecture. The modernist movement, which focused on the simplicity of the form, was challenged by an expanding movement from the beginning of the 1960s to the 1980s. More daringly experimenting with new textures, hues, and aesthetics were postmodern designers.

Postmodern designers, including those of furniture, drew their inspiration from popular culture, primarily from magazines and comic books, as opposed to modern designers who looked to architecture and art for design ideas. Postmodern furniture was created in Milan, Italy, despite the fact that the postmodern movement was first introduced in the United States. Many designers came to the city between the late 1970s and the early 1980s to research this postmodern idea in order to develop their furniture designs. The Alchimia Studio and The Memphis Group were the two most well-known design collectives.

What are the Differences Between Postmodern Furniture VS. Modernist Furniture?

When it came to creating postmodern furniture, modernist designers took very different tacks. Based solely on their slogans, the two ideologies had a significant gap between them. According to American architect and designer Louis Sullivan, modernist designers thought that when designing, the form should come after the function. Because of this notion, simplicity was valued at the time because the functionality was given much more weight when designing furniture than form. Post-modernists explored various designs based on their inspirations and were much more daring. Modernists, according to German architect and designer Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, believed that less is more. This notion implied that modernists believed a design was better if it lacked ornamentation.

Postmodern furniture, on the other hand, believed that the absence of ornamentation made the design uninteresting and overly straightforward. Lastly, postmodernism rejected the division between high and commercial art. Instead, they believed that all art, regardless of whether it was mass-produced or one-of-a-kind, deserved to be excellent and distinctive.

Who are the Postmodern Furniture Designers?

Even though the postmodern design movement was only active for a brief period in the final decades of the 20th century, its creators continue to be well-known today. Additionally, the majority of current postmodern furniture was inspired by these designers.

Designer and architect Alessandro Mendini worked in Milan. This multi-talented man, who was primarily regarded as Italy’s best designer, made a significant contribution to the growth of postmodern design. He restarted production of the “Made in Italy” design. Additionally, he is credited with creating collections for Corsi Design Factory and Post, both of which feature vibrant colors.

Designer of the Postmodern Era, Ettore Sottsass was famous for his creations. He was born in Austria. The Memphis Group, a design collective he led in the 1980s, is the product for which he is most famous in postmodern furniture. The real driving force behind his work, however, was his character. This was more important than any other movement and greatly revolutionized many career moments. Sottsass had a poetic bent to his designs and a desire to delve beneath the surface of every project he took on.

One of the most well-known artists of the postmodern movement was Michael Graves. He received the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome in 1960. He studied ancient structures in Italy between 1960 and 1962. Although he began as a modernist, he later adopted more varied architectural forms that he hoped to make available to the general public and switched to postmodern design.

What Should Be Considered Before Buying Postmodern Furniture?

If you’re shopping for Postmodern furniture, some things you can look for are:

  • furniture with chunky profiles
  • pedestal tables
  • low coffee tables with short legs
  • mushroom coffee tables
  • rounded seating
  • waterfall tables
  • tubular and spherical shapes
  • fluted finishes

Postmodern furniture was light-hearted and whimsical, meaning that the designers looked for form over functionality in their work to match the new postmodernist movement. It is different from modernist furniture. If you want to buy postmodern furniture, consider tables and other furniture above all.