Memphis (design)
The Milan-based group Memphis was founded in 1980 as an association of furniture, textile and ceramic designers of the postmodern era . Memphis also refers to the group's collection and its company (1981–88). Similar to the previous movement, Studio Alchimia , Memphis broke with the prevailing rules of functionalism . In contrast to Alchimia , however, Memphis wanted to profit from the international recognition of Italian anti-design and market its products profitably.
features
The former Studio Alchimia members Michele De Lucchi and Ettore Sottsass, angry at the high-handedness of the industrial clients, turned their group against the common practice that only clients could determine what, when and how of products. With their individual artistic impulses, which were nevertheless broken by a design system and regularity, the Milan-based design group irritated and disturbed the international scene.
Memphis radically questioned the primary functionality of design objects. Everyday forms were interpreted in a positive, pleasurable and imaginative way. The focus is on the furniture as an icon with a high recognition value . Furniture was composed of elementary shapes (cones, spheres, pyramids, cubes) and coated with bright plastic laminates. The unmistakable appearance of the Memphis designs ensured a worldwide distribution, which was mostly limited to glossy magazines, museums and private collections.
Memphis tried to integrate a wide variety of international, cultural influences into its design. The stylistically diverse objects should find sales opportunities all over the world. In relation to the design direction of the 1930s, Memphis was ironically referred to as the New International Style .
Naming and history
In December 1980 Ettore Sottsass organized a meeting with some young designer friends in his apartment, at which the Memphis group was founded. Those present included Michele De Lucchi , Matteo Thun and Barbara Radice , among others . During the meeting, the Bob Dylan song Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again played . Sottsass suggested "Memphis" as the name for the new formation, as Memphis stands on the one hand for the old Egyptian ruling city, on the other hand for the city in Tennessee, USA, which is inextricably linked with rock'n'roll and the name Elvis Presley.
On December 18, 1981, the first Memphis collection was presented in Milan and was enthusiastically received by the public. The exhibition comprised a total of 31 pieces of furniture, eleven ceramics, three clocks and ten lamps. In addition to the former Alchimia members Sottsass, de Lucchi and Andrea Branzi , numerous international architects and designers, including Matteo Thun , Arata Isozaki , Michael Graves , Shiro Kuramata , Javier Mariscal , Nathalie du Pasquier and Hans Hollein, contributed designs to Memphis' collections.
In 1986 the 2nd generation of Memphis designers 12 New was formed, consisting of 12 unknown young designers, among them Massimo Iosa Ghini and Shuji Hisada . Since the popularity decreased noticeably under the negative influence of many bad copies, the group disbanded in 1988.
Works
The Carlton (Italian: mobile divosorio) shelf designed by Ettore Sottsass from 1980–81 combines numerous style elements typical of Memphis: the brightly laminated shelves, the almost complete absence of right angles, the playful aesthetics and the inexpedient design blur the boundaries between pieces of furniture and plastic. The fully collapsible shelf is one of the most famous Memphis design objects and is still in production today.
Criticism and importance
Memphis' designs mark the end and the climax of the Italian anti-functional design movement since the 1960s. The group established an unprecedented stylistic arbitrariness and finally broke with the dominant doctrines of form, follows function or less is more in design .
Above all in Germany, whose professional design scene at that time was dominated by graduates from the Ulm School of Design , the "astray" of the "Memphis" designers initially met with sheer horror. After the first phase of bitter rejection, however, some ex-Ulmers tried a cautious approach by using the elementary forms and shock colors in a weakened form for their own designs. On the other hand, "Memphis" encouraged a whole generation of young German designers who, as New German Design, were also looking for alternative content, production and distribution forms.
Created in the 1980s, the squeaky geometric style gained its greatest popularity in the 1990s, when it became a widely accepted popular culture that influenced the design of furniture, architecture and household items.
Main representatives
literature
- Beat Schneider: Design - An Introduction. Design in a social, cultural and economic context , Basel: Birkhäuser, 2005, pp. 147–160.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. Bernhard E. Bürdeck: Design. History, theory and practice of product design, Basel: Birkhäuser, 2005, p. 137.
- ↑ see Georg C. Bertsch: Euro - Design - Guide. A guide through the history of design from AZ, Munich: Heyne, 1991, p. 142.
- ↑ cf. Bernhard E. Bürdeck: Design. History, theory and practice of product design, Basel: Birkhäuser, 2005, p. 139.
- ↑ cf. Bernhard E. Bürdeck: Design. History, theory and practice of product design, Basel: Birkhäuser, 2005, p. 139.
- ↑ cf. Bernhard E. Bürdeck: Design. History, theory and practice of product design, Basel: Birkhäuser, 2005, pp. 137–139.
- ↑ cf. Bernhard E. Bürdeck: Design. History, theory and practice of product design, Basel: Birkhäuser, 2005, p. 139.
- ↑ cf. Thomas Hauffe: Design. Crash course, Cologne: Dumont, 2000, p. 154.
- ^ Carlton. Retrieved September 2, 2014 .
- ↑ cf. Bernhard E. Bürdeck: Design. History, theory and practice of product design, Basel: Birkhäuser, 2005, pp. 139–141.