Contemporary Art & Design Presents The Memphis Group

Memphis Group – A private collection

“A piece of Memphis furniture is a linguistically controlled assembly whose final form is not the result of a design story held together by constructive coherence, but a milk shake of possibilities, an accident that represents the variable and unstable logic of the parts that compose it: volumes broken into different kinds of surfaces, fragmented by decoration and diversified by textures, materials and color.”

– Barbara Radice, 1985

In December 1980, a group of young designers gathered in Milan with a common view of the design scene of the time. With the ambition to create a platform for critical reflection, the foundation was laid for a designer collective that wanted to challenge prevailing aesthetics, material choices and production processes during the industrial age that was the 1980s. The established, conventional "good taste" would be questioned at all costs. With an energetic obsession, the group worked out their manifesto to the tune of Bob Dylan's "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again", from which the group got its name - Memphis. Strictly speaking, it was initially neither a movement nor a full-fledged style, but rather an experiment by a group of young designers.

Memphis was founded under the artistic direction of Milanese architect and designer Ettore Sottsass. Many of those who would become the main members of the group were present at the first meeting, including Michele De Lucchi and Aldo Cibic. More members were added as time went on, such as the American Peter Shire, the Japanese Shiro Kuramata, the French Nathalie Du Pasquier and the British George Sowden among many more. Two more people played crucial roles in the establishment and success of Memphis: the journalist Barbara Radice, who became the group's coordinator and art director, and Ernesto Gismondi, the founder of Artemide, who ensures a much-needed link to producers.