Cocktail cabinet, 'Cipriani', designed by Alessandro Mendini for Memphis, Milan, Italy, 1981.

Cabinet with mirrored front surfaces, black laminated wooden carcass, chromium plated metal parts and clear glass shelves inside. Atom-styled ball feet and 'antennae' and incised signature 'A.Mendini/1981/8/20'.

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The Cipriani cabinet is an example of a Mendini design for Memphis in the first year of its activity. Stylistically, the cabinet shows the hallmarks of both Mendini and Memphis: an ostentatiously glossy and playful object, with a glamorous name (early Memphis objects were all named for luxury hotels: the Belair chair, the Hilton and Carlton cabinets etc), which uses laminated and veneered surfaces over a basic wooden carcass. Memphis objects are all concerned with surface effect, pattern and finish (not the integrity of their structure or base materials). The Cipriani is a domestic cocktail cabinet, with mirrored front panels and laminated sides and chromed legs. It also has several details - such as the atom-styled ball feet and 'antennae' referring obliquely to 1950s domestic design - which are characteristic of Mendini's work at the time. Colourful and whimsical 1950s popular design motifs recurred in Mendini's work - partly as a celebration of banality and kitsch, and because they were so ubiquitous in the domestic landscape of post-war Italy. At the same time as the Cipriani cabinet was produced, Mendini also launched a furniture series called 'Infinite Furniture' (1981) and the objects share certain design traits with the Cipriani. The full-mirrored effect is unusual in a Memphis object (more commonly, objects were surfaced in coloured and patterned laminates). However, Mendini produced several other mirrored objects, including a large scale version of his 'Lassu' chair.

In Italy during the early 1980s the 'new design' movement centred around two groups: Studio Alchymia, set up in 1976 by Alessandro Guerriero, and fronted by Alessandro Mendini from soon after; and Memphis, founded by Ettore Sottsass Jnr., in 1980, launching its first collection of objects in 1981. Both groups (which had in common many members) drew from the same eclectic range of high and low cultural references in the creation of objects that demonstrated the social and communicative potential of design. They differed in their commercial approach - Studio Alchymia considered its role to be essentially provocative and intellectual (although it produced some works in series, staged selling exhibitions and took commissions) whereas Memphis took a much more commercial approach, envisaging the early prototypes to be suitable for large scale manufacture, occupying a 'real' position in the marketplace.

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W.2-2010