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Post-Modern Games

POSTMODERN STYLE

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

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 Mendinia 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.

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Style: Post-Modern
Modernist Boxed Wood Chess Pieces
Located in Garnerville, NY
A fine boxed set of carved wood modernist chessmen. The two sets are made of hardwood and sculpturally carved into very stylized forms. One set is in a blonde wood natural finish and...
Category

1970s American Vintage Post-Modern Games

Materials

Wood

1980's Portable Magnetic Backgammon Set
Located in San Diego, CA
Petite portable 1980's Backgammon with magnetic tablets nice original condition.
Category

20th Century American Post-Modern Games

Materials

Naugahyde

Italy modern Wood clapperboard Looney Tunes: Back in action by Warner Bros, 2003
Located in MIlano, IT
Italy modern Wood clapperboard Looney Tunes: Back in action by Warner Bros Studios, 2003 Wooden clapperboard distributed to promote the cinema release of the film Looney Tunes: Back ...
Category

Early 2000s Italian Post-Modern Games

Materials

Wood

Large Pui Wood Domino Set by Marcela Cure
Located in Geneve, CH
Large Pui wood domino set by Marcela Cure Dimensions: W 17 x D 24 x H 15 cm Materials: olive wood with malachite inlay. Our Large Domino set is composed of 28 pieces of pui wood...
Category

2010s Colombian Post-Modern Games

Materials

Malachite

Michael Graves Post-modern Chess / Checkers Set Board Game and Pieces
Located in Miami, FL
Michael Graves Post-modern Chess and Checkers Board Game and Pieces Offered for sale is an original post-modern Michael Graves(1934-) chess and checkers set. The box and board are made from maple. The pieces are resin in ebony and ivory tones. The pieces are signed on the bases on the felt. The board has velvet-lined storage compartments for the pieces when you choose to play checkers. Michael Graves was a Memphis Group designer and a member of the New York Five...
Category

1990s American Post-Modern Games

Materials

Epoxy Resin, Maple

Victor Vasarely Artistic Chess Set
Located in Waalwijk, NL
Victor Vasarely, chess set, plexiglass, France, 1979 Victor Vasarely (1906-1997), one of the important artists of the optical art, designed this chess set in 1979. On a cross-legged...
Category

1970s French Vintage Post-Modern Games

Materials

Plexiglass

Michael Graves Postmodern Chess and Checkers Set
Located in North Hollywood, CA
Michael Graves Postmodern Chess and Checkers Set. Original postmodern Michael Graves chess and checkers set. Maple woo...
Category

Late 20th Century American Post-Modern Games

Materials

Resin, Wood

Vintage Leather Bridge, Poker Playing Card Game Case with 2 Card Decks
Located in North Hollywood, CA
Vintage hand tooled leather bridge or poker playing card game case with 2 Card Decks. This playing card set with two decks comes in a luxu...
Category

Late 20th Century Post-Modern Games

Materials

Leather

Japanese "TomoKazu" Inlaid Marquetry Chess of Checkers board, Japan, circa 1980s
Located in Miami, FL
Post-Modern Japanese chessboard or checkerboard. Rendered in an intricate inlay marquetry of walnut, burl, birch, and maple. By Tomokazu, Japan, circa 1980s.
Category

Late 20th Century Japanese Post-Modern Games

Materials

Birch, Maple, Walnut, Burl

Leaf Swing by Veronica Mar
Located in Geneve, CH
Leaf Swing by Veronica Mar Dimensions: D55 x W33 x H7 cm Materials: iroko Wood, Hemp Weight: 1.5 kg. Numbered and limited edition to 88 pieces. Also available in different mat...
Category

2010s Spanish Post-Modern Games

Materials

Hemp, Wood

Gold Autoumn Leaf Swing by Veronica Mar
Located in Geneve, CH
Gold Autoumn Leaf Swing by Veronica Mar Dimensions: D55 x W33 x H7 cm Materials: Bronze gold plated. GOLD 24K Weight: 19 kg. Numbered and Limited Edition Also available in dif...
Category

2010s Spanish Post-Modern Games

Materials

Gold, Bronze

Autoumn Leaf Swing by Veronica Mar
Located in Geneve, CH
Autoumn leaf swing by Veronica Mar Dimensions: D55 x W33 x H7 cm Materials: Aluminium white lacquered Weight: 3 kg. Numbered and limited edition to 88 pieces. Also available i...
Category

2010s Spanish Post-Modern Games

Materials

Aluminum

Set of 6 Octagonal Malachite Napkin Rings by Marcela Cure
Located in Geneve, CH
Set of 6 Octagonal Malachite Napkin Rings by Marcela Cure Dimensions: W 7 x D 7 x H 1 cm Materials: Malachite Our luxurious Malachite Napkin Rings are completely made with natur...
Category

2010s Colombian Post-Modern Games

Materials

Malachite

Small Olive Wood Domino Set by Marcela Cure
Located in Geneve, CH
Small Olive Wood Domino Set by Marcela Cure Dimensions: Upper W 24 x D 9 x H 5 cm Materials: Olive Wood with Malachite inlay. Our Small Olive Wood Domino set is composed of 28 p...
Category

2010s Colombian Post-Modern Games

Materials

Malachite

Small Olive Wood Dice Set by Marcela Cure
Located in Geneve, CH
Small Olive Wood Dice Set by Marcela Cure Dimensions: W 19 x D 19 x H 7 cm Materials: Olive Wood with Malachite inlay. Our Small Dice set is composed of 9 (6cms) wood dice with ...
Category

2010s Colombian Post-Modern Games

Materials

Malachite

Set of 6 Square Malachite Napkin Rings by Marcela Cure
Located in Geneve, CH
Set of 6 Square Malachite Napkin Rings by Marcela Cure Dimensions: W 7 x D 7 x H 1 cm Materials: Malachite Our luxurious Malachite Napkin Rings are completely made with natural ...
Category

2010s Colombian Post-Modern Games

Materials

Malachite

Set of 6 Round Malachite Napkin Rings by Marcela Cure
Located in Geneve, CH
Set of 6 round malachite napkin rings by Marcela Cure Dimensions: W 7 x D 7 x H 1 cm Materials: Malachite Our luxurious Malachite Napkin Rings are completely made with natural m...
Category

2010s Colombian Post-Modern Games

Materials

Malachite

Comequandofuoripiove Case + 2 Decks of Cards by Studio Lievito
Located in Geneve, CH
Comequandofuoripiove case + 2 decks of cards by Studio Lievito Dimensions: D15 x W17 X H6 cm Materials: bianco carrara marble, mohogany wood. Weight: 2.6 kg A reference to one of the most characteristic uses of marble and to the territory of origin of Studio Lievito, this package recalls the box where the lard is stored during its seasoning. Ashioned of white carrara marble with a sliding mahogany drawer, this elegant case comes with two decks of 54 poker cards designed by Studio Lievito. The whimsical name of this piece derives from the catchy phrase (“like when it’s raining outside” in English) used to easily remember the value order in the deck of French cards...
Category

2010s Italian Post-Modern Games

Materials

Marble

Ottaviani Large, Lux Wood Box & 800 Silver, Card, Dice, Poker Game Horse/Stallion
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Beautiful game box, hand made by Ottaviani in Italy Rocanati, this box has R mark and also shows 925 sterling mark on side of the R. All chips and card seem to be in the box and some...
Category

Late 20th Century Italian Post-Modern Games

Materials

Silver

Postmodern Tic Tac Toe Board Game by Michael Graves, USA 2002
Located in Chicago, IL
Designed by Michael Graves, this Tic Tac Toe board game has an elegant and strong postmodern style. The checkered board stands on 4 square feet giving the game the look of a monument...
Category

Early 2000s Chinese Post-Modern Games

Materials

Wood

Mini Hoop
Located in Fort Wayne, IN
We grew up shooting on a mini hoop and its been a mainstay in our studio since our conception; our best ideas come after a copious amount of airballs. So, we created the black helmut mini hoop; ideal for cheap therapy and ideation sessions. Custom steel construction with white powdercoat...
Category

2010s American Post-Modern Games

Materials

Steel

'Pillow Computer' by Schimmel & Schweikle
By alfa.brussels
Located in Antwerp, BE
Pillow computer (prototype) Sizes: width 137 cm, depth 109 cm, height 37 cm material: wood, PU-foam, faux fur, car paint, computer edition: prototype,...
Category

2010s European Post-Modern Games

Materials

Faux Fur, Foam

Michael Graves Postmodern Chess and Checkers Set Game
Located in North Miami, FL
This original Postmodern Michael Graves chess set with checkers pieces has been fully restored with the wood which is 2 variants of maple. The wood was redone and new felt was put on the bottom. The resin players are a composition. It has velvet storage compartments inside for the players when you wish to use the checkers game part. Michael Graves was a Memphis Group designer and a member of the New York Five...
Category

1990s American Post-Modern Games

Materials

Velvet, Wood

Michael Graves Postmodern Deco Revival Corded Telephone Model MG1000
Located in Miami, FL
Postmodern Deco revival landline phone model MG1000 designed by Michael Graves, 2000.
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Chinese Post-Modern Games

Materials

Plastic

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Post-modern games for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a broad range of unique Post-Modern games for sale on 1stDibs. Many of these items were first offered in the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artisans have continued to produce works inspired by this style. If you’re looking to add vintage games created in this style to your space, the works available on 1stDibs include more furniture and collectibles, decorative objects, building and garden elements and other home furnishings, frequently crafted with wood, stone and other materials. If you’re shopping for used Post-Modern games made in a specific country, there are Europe, North America, and Colombia pieces for sale on 1stDibs. While there are many designers and brands associated with original games, popular names associated with this style include Michael Graves (b.1934), Ottaviani, and Victor Vasarely. It’s true that these talented designers have at times inspired knockoffs, but our experienced specialists have partnered with only top vetted sellers to offer authentic pieces that come with a buyer protection guarantee. Prices for games differ depending upon multiple factors, including designer, materials, construction methods, condition and provenance. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $130 and tops out at $13,800 while the average work can sell for $1,250.

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