The ?80s design collective was a radical departure; and deadpanned as a symbol of trend-chasing yuppies In a decade known for indulgence, the designs that emerged from the Memphis Group defined the boundary-pushing postmodernism of the ?80s. The abstract and angular furniture and graphic patterns devised by this Italian-based collective were the antithesis of streamlined, midcentury style; one critic described a room of their work as a series of ?flat disks, lozenges, and saw-toothed edges; some resemble slices of lemon, toothbrushes and imaginary animals.?
And the colors?pastel and punchy?were even more striking. Lester Dundes, the influential publisher of Interior Design magazine, said the radical design group?s debut was ?a bolt out of the blue, red and yellow.? But above all, Memphis, the short-lived design movement that entered the world in 1981 with the force of a runway show and faded out before the decade closed, was playful, an indifferent and insouciant break from tradition in line with the kind of Reagan-era rebellion seen on a nascent MTV.
A collective of international designers founded by Ettore Sottsass, whose career is the subject of an upcoming retrospective at New York?s Met Breuer opening this July, the brief movement was fashionable and fun. A then up-and-coming New York magazine fashion editor, Anna Wintour, said that furniture ?wasn?t a whole lot of fun until 1981, when the Memphis design group, based in Milan, brought out its first collection ....