april 12, 2021 - Memphis

Night Tales – Masanori Umeda – Memphis | Post Design Gallery

Memphis | Post #design Gallery

Largo Treves 5, 20121 Milan

Preview: 12-17 April, 10am-1pm/3-7.30pm

On the occasion of the Fuorisalone #design City Edition 2021 (12-18 April 2021), Memphis presents “Night Tales”, a Post #design collection by Masanori Umeda.

The “Night Tales” collection can be viewed #online on the Fuorisalone.it platform, and at memphis-milano.com, as of 12 April. It will be available for viewing at the same time at the Post #design Gallery, Largo Treves 5, in the centre of the Brera #design District.

Forty years after the creation of the #memphis Group and the presentation of the famous Tawaraya boxing ring, a new family of products designed by #masanoriumeda, some of them dating from the early eighties – fully in line with the spirit of Memphis – now takes its place in the family of Post #design collections.

The Utamaro series consists of a double bed, sofa and armchair, inspired by the erotic rituals of the Edo period, women and the interiors of traditional homes, as represented in the works of the Japanese painter Kitagawa Utamaro.

These three coordinated furnishing objects, with their massive aesthetic impact, have a blue and fuchsia metal tubular structure, with iconic, black and white chessboard pattern laminate borders, tatami mats, trays with lacquered surfaces and flamboyant coloured silk pillows.

Just as he did with his Tawaraya boxing ring, Umeda combines traditional Japanese domestic aesthetics with contemporary Nippon accents and the western taste in furnishings in a remarkable juxtaposition.

The other works designed by Umeda in the early eighties which are now presented in the “Night Tales” collection are the Medusatable and the Animal Chair, the Gelato lamp and the Star aluminium tray.

The Medusa table, made to a 1982 #design, is a domestic animal with zigzag legs, reminiscent of the arms of the Murmansk fruit dish by Sottsass. The iridescent, dichroic glass top changes colour with the changing of the light conditions and the angle of viewing, while projecting coloured shadows around the room.

The Animal Chair, which was also designed in 1982, forms part of one of the Umeda #design projects which bring nature and #design together to create likable objects which exude instant empathy and emotional involvement.

The Gelato table, wall and ceiling lamp is an object with personality, halfway between an ice cream cone and a clown's hat.

The Star tray is a complex centrepiece for the table or fruit bowl with small coloured handles and a perforated decorative motif in the centre.

In addition to the new “Night Tales” collection by #masanoriumeda, the Post #design Gallery also presents a number of works from the Memphis-Milano collection, which have recently been made available once again, including the Negresco wall-mounted lamp by Martine Bedin (1981), the pair of Fuji cabinets by Arata Isozaki (1981), and the Atlas table by Aldo Cibic (1983).

Masanori Umeda (Kanagawa, Japan, 1941)

Masanori Umeda obtained a diploma at Tokyo's Kuwasawa #design School in 1962.

He moved to Milan in 1967, where he worked at the studio of Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni. It was while he was working as a consultant at the Olivetti #design and furnishing system studio from 1970 to 1979 that he met Ettore Sottsass.

In 1981, Umeda designed his most famous object for #memphis, the Tawaraya boxing ring, in which the founding members of the group were photographed by Studio Azzurro to create one of the most iconic of #memphis images. A blend of East and West, Tawaraya, a kind of metaphor for a conversation piece, is a boxing ring surfaced with the tatami mats typical of Japanese traditional interiors. Umeda continued to work with the #memphis Group in the two years which followed, during which he produced the Ginza robot cabinet and two ceramic objects, the Orinoco vase and Parana bowl.

Umeda returned to Japan in 1986, where he opened his U-MetaDesign studio in Tokyo, which changed its name to Umeda #design Studio Inc in 2001. In the years which followed, he continued to #design many postmodern, poetic and ironic items of furniture.

Masanori Umeda has taken part in a number of international exhibitions and received several awards, including the Braun Prize in 1968, the Grand Prix of Japan Display #design Award in 1981, the Japan Commercial Space #design Award in 1984 and the Grand Prix of Good #design Award, Japan, in 1990. His designs are on display in many museums throughout the world. In 2015, more than 180 works by Umeda were purchased by the M+ Museum, West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong.

Further information in the press release to download