Decorative art takes centre stage at the Walker; this month sees the official opening of the Craft and Design Gallery, at the Walker, Liverpool, the museum's first dedicated space for decorative art. Robin Emmerson introduces a selection of the recent acquisitions that form highlights of the new display

Apollo, Oct, 2004 by Robin Emmerson

The 'Pylon' chair, like the 'S' chair, has subsequently been manufactured by the Italian company Cappellini. Described as a desk, dining or occasional chair, it is designed with sufficient strength to support even a very large person. Built using fairly minimal material, it may appear uninviting to sit on, but is surprisingly comfortable.

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'Casablanca' cabinet Designed by Ettore Sottsass Jr (b. 1917) for Memphis, Milan, 1981. Plastic laminate over fibreboard, 230 x 151 x 43 cm.

Purchased with the help of the National Art Collections Fund, 2000.

Designed to challenge Modernist notions of good taste, this cabinet was in the exhibition that launched Memphis as a group of designers at the Milan furniture fair in 1981. It exemplifies the Memphis view that design should not take itself too seriously, and that popular culture, nostalgia, fun and fantasy all provide good material for designers. The cabinet's plastic laminate finishes were inspired by fifties' coffee bars and its humanoid form suggests a totem pole or temple guardian figure.

The name Memphis was itself chosen to invoke a similar range of reference--not only Memphis, Tennessee and American popular culture, but also Memphis in ancient Egypt. Sottsass, then already in his sixties, had long since moved from his sleek Modernist work of the 1950s to become a pioneer of 'Anti-Design'. He was the elder statesman of the youthful Memphis group.

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Bracelet by Peter Chang (b. 1944), 2000. Fluorescent acrylic and resin, diam 18 cm.

Purchased with the help of the museum's Friends, 2002.

Peter Chang was born in London. His father, a Chinese seaman, moved the family to Liverpool shortly after Peter was born. Having trained at the Liverpool College of Art, studying art, graphic design and sculpture, and at the Slade in London, he worked in Liverpool until 1987, when he moved to Glasgow.

Each piece of Peter Chang's jewellery is a unique work of art, individually modelled from colourful acrylics and resin. Over the years, using his great technical skill, he has developed new processes and techniques. The bright colours he uses reflect his Chinese background and his early years spent in the Liverpool Chinese community (he still retains acrylic signs taken from shops in Liverpool's China town, which he uses as material for his jewellery). He has attained international status as an artist and examples of his work are in museums in Britain, Europe, America and Hong Kong.

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'Blown Away' vase, Collision of particles by Elizabeth Fritsch (b. 1940), 1991. Stoneware, ht 40 cm.

Purchased 1994.

Arguably the greatest contemporary British potter, Elizabeth Fritsch compares herself to a jazz musician in extremely slow motion. Quantum physics, mythology and Surrealism are among the many influences on her work. All the pots are hand-built, not thrown. A central interest is the interplay between the two-dimensional surface of a pot, the suggestion of a third dimension in its painted decoration, the denial of this in the unglazed, fresco-like quality of its surface, and its reassertion in the pot's actual (or apparent) curvature.