70S Versus 80s

The topicality of the 70s and 80s is, paradoxically, due to the fact that they belong to the past - for by now, even the 80s are far enough away that we can recognise them as a complete decade with its own interesting aesthetics. 70s Versus 80s - the title already indicates that the book is primarily intended to highlight the aesthetic break between the two decades and thus to argue for something like a fundamentally different conception dominating each period. By focusing on the radical furniture designs by artists such as Luigi Colani or Ettore Sottass, but also on objects of glass, pottery and fabrics, the shapes of which are typical of the two decades, a definition of the aesthetics of each period is attempted. It then becomes clear that around the year 1980, a paradigmatic change in aesthetics took place on a broad front, a re-evaluation that emphasised mutiplicity instead of unity, image instead of function, witty or even aggressive messages instead of good-natured self-reference - in short, that something has happened around 1980 which can be read as the definitive end of Modernism and the final arrival. Artists include: Susi and Ueli Berger; Rodolfo Bonetto; Romy Bonhert; Jagoda Buic; Dale Chihuly; Kuigi Colani; Joe Colombo; Norman Courtney; Erwin Eisch; Elisabeth Fritsch; Francoise Grossen; Samuel Herman; Wayne Higby; Pavel Hlava; Hans Hollein; Erik Hogland; Joel Phillips Myers; Peter John Simpson; Philippe Stark; Studio Alchima; Mary Ann Toots Zinsky and others.