Memphis Design Movement
The Memphis-filled apartment of Raquel Cayre. Photo: Bobby Doherty/The New York Times
Also, known as Memphis Milano or the Memphis Group, was a radical design movement born in 1981 in Milan, Italy. The group was Founded by Ettore Sottsass and was comprised of several notable designers. The group consists of Masanori Umeda, Shiro Kuramata, Andrea Branzi, Nathalie du Pasquier, Michele de Lucchi, Peter Shire, Marco Zanini, Martine Bedine, George Sowden, Michael Graves, Hans Hollein, Matteo Thun, Marco Zanuso, Thomas Bley, Barbara Radice, Aldo Cibic, Massimo Iosa Ghini, Gerard Taylor, Javier Mariscal, Beppe Caturegli and Ernesto Gismondi.
How did this outrageous radical design movement start in the first place? Ettore Sottsass founded Sottsass Associati in his early 60s- a milan based design consultancy. This formation would be the breeding ground for the future memphis movement.
Original Memphis group members lounging in Masanori Umeda’s ‘boxing ring bed’ (1981).
1977
While skipping through Wet Magazine, Sottsass spots an irregular geometric ceramic teapot, designed by artist Peter Shire. Sottsass tells his partners, Aldo Cibic and Matteo Thun, that they should contact Shire about a possible collaboration.
Photo: Courtesy of the Artist
The times were changing and many were seeking a different design philosophy. Sottsass and many others recognized this need. So, founder, Ettore Sottsass, gathered a group of milan-based designers who experimented with new techniques and bold, colorful styles that we now know as post-modernism.
December 11th,1980
The group Crammed into Sottsass’s 270-square-foot Milan apartment, drunk, reviewing each others sketches. “We started applauding whenever we looked at someone’s drawings,” says Martine Bedin, one of the Memphis designers in attendance. “Ettore said, ‘This is a collection! Let’s make it.’ ”
That night, they listened to Bob Dylan’s “Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again” — thus the name of the movement was born.
The group not only focused on furniture but interior design and architecture. The wild and outrageous style has become one of the most recognizable. Like many beginnings, the memphis group was started to challenge the status quo. With many discouraged by its style, others we’re intrigued by its righteousness.
Features of the style include:
- squiggly lines, also known as ‘bacterio’ prints (invented by sottsass in 1978)
- bold and bright multi-colored surfaces that rejected the typical geometry and were swapped for triangles and circles instead of rectangles.
- materials like terrazzo and laminate ( found in flooring, lamps, tables, etc.)
September, 1981
The group releases their first collection at Salone de Mobile in Milan. Although they never had an introduction or catalogue, people were lining up and down the blocks to see. “When we got there, it was a huge traffic jam,” recalls Bedin, “and Ettore thought there was a terrorist attack. Later, we found out everyone was there for us.” One of the designs on show was the Carlton sideboard (below).
Photo: Courtesy of the Artist
1982
The groups fame and notoriety grew quickly. Sottsass Associati begins designing store interiors for Esprit featuring plastic-laminate counters and terrazzo floors and walls.
In the same year, The Memphis Group launches its very first U.S. show. Located in a loft in Chelsea, the group amassed Nearly Three thousand people who show up for the opening, although very few buy anything.
“Nothing was commercially successful at the time,” says Sottsass’s widow, and Memphis’s historian, Barbara Radice.
October,1984
Playboy photographs playmate Marianne Gravatte in Shire’s Bel Air chair. “That was a special moment,” Shire says.
Peter Shire’s Bel Air Chair designed in 1982
November, 1984
By this time, heads were rolling for Memphis Milano. The group had an exhibit in Memphis, Tennessee where the mayor presented the group with a key to the city.
“We came from being nobodies,” Bedin says. “They were waiting for us at the airport with a band. It was completely crazy.”
1985
The founder of the group, Ettore Sottsass didn’t want to be defined by one movement, ultimately leaving the group and moving onto the next chapter.
“He felt that the experiment was over,” says Marco Zanini, one of the original designers.
1986
Pee-wee’s Playhouse debuts with set design heavily influenced by Memphis Milano. The movie Ruthless People, is also released in the same year and is drenched in Memphis-inspired décor.
1987
The group formally dissolves yet the culture is forever changed.
1989
The hit show, Saved Before The Bell premiers with a set heavily influenced by Memphis Milano design.
October, 1991
Karl Lagerfeld sells his entire memphis milano collection from his Monaco home to Sotheby’s. Later, in 2016 after Lagerfeld’s death, his collection was auctioned off again and this time for over £1.3 million.
© Jacques Schumacher
In the same year, 2016, David Bowie’s estate sells approximately 100 pieces from his personal memphis collection. This includes the Casablanca sideboard by Ettore Sottsass. Auctioneer, Sotheby’s estimated the piece would sell fro around $5,000; it sells fro $88,419 (pictured below).
The movement was active from 1981-1988. The unconventional style may have been controversial of the time but it is now widely recognized and respected. THeir work is deeply loved and collected by the finest design connoisseurs around the world. You can find the movements designs in the Art Institute of Chicago, the Design Museum in London and the Musuem of Modern ARt in New York among many others.
More work by the Memphis Group
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