Italian artist and designer Piero Fornasetti will permanently be remembered for his extensive output of highly collectible art items, all of which seamlessly blend purpose and aptitude.
Italy has certainly developed much more than its fair share of renowned artists and designers, but Piero Fornasetti assuredly stands out as a person of the most prolific of the bunch. He developed perfectly above 11,000 artwork objects in his life span, all of which bear the mark of his unique, very authentic fashion – a modern mix of fantasy, poetic humour, and timeless natural beauty.
Born in Milan in 1913, Piero was the eldest son from a properly-heeled, middle-course family. By the age of 10 his interest and capability in artwork was presently evident, and he used much of his totally free time drawing landscapes and portraits, and sketching out fanciful architectural layouts. When he began painting, his inspirations arrived from Renaissance-period masters these types of as Piero della Francesca and Giotto, as properly as the classical frescoes of antiquity, most notably the kinds observed in the ancient ruins of Pompeii.
He went on to examine at the Accademia di Brera and the Scuola Superiore of Used Arts at Castello Sforzesco – both in Milan – but his rebellious character and restless spirit designed him unable to adhere to the rigid dogma these universities imposed. In the early 1930s, he turned his interest and huge complex talent to engraving and printing techniques, and before long his freshly proven Fornasetti Artwork Printshop was making artist books and lithographs for some of the best artists of that time names these types of as Giorgio de Chirico, Alberto Savinio, and Fabrizio Clerici.
In the course of this 10 years he also experimented continually with various printing approaches, and ultimately stumbled on a exclusive way to deliver graphic consequences on silk scarves. This new discovery caught the interest of Gio Ponti – an acclaimed architect, industrial designer, furniture designer, author and publisher – setting the stage for what would before long become a quite shut creative partnership concerning the two males.
The pair worked on numerous tasks in the early 1940s, prior to the escalation of WWII compelled Piero to flee to Switzerland in 1943. On his return to Milan, he and Gio embarked on a sequence of initiatives revolving all around models and furnishings for interiors, which encompassed everything from houses and flats, to ocean liner cabins and cinemas.
In the 1950s, Piero launched Fornasetti, the layout and decorative arts atelier in Milan that bears his name. All through this exact interval he commenced get the job done on what would develop into his most legendary sequence, the Tema e Variazioni (‘Themes & Variations’). His beginning place for this series would be the portrait of a lady, and for his muse he chose the face of Lina Cavalieri, an opera singer who, at the flip of the 20th century, was broadly regarded as the most gorgeous woman in the globe. To this day her haunting visage can be found on plates, cabinets, chairbacks, vases, pillows, and a broad array of other objet d’art developed by Atelier Fornasetti.
Although the acceptance of Fornasetti’s styles waned a bit in the 1970s, a new artwork gallery opened in London in the 1980s – spearheaded by Liliane Fawcett and Giuliana Medda – dedicated to the artist’s ‘Themes & Variations’. This right away revived fascination in his perform, and in 1987 the artist collaborated with Patrick Mauriés on the initial comprehensive monograph on his overall body of get the job done, which would sadly be printed posthumously soon after his demise in Oct of 1988.
It is no exaggeration to contact Piero Fornasetti a true Renaissance male. Not only was he an exceptional painter and illustrator, he was also an creative designer – always stressing creative imagination in harmony with the utility of an item – and he experienced a important impact on trend as very well. Picked providers globally, this sort of as Praguekabinet in the Czech Republic, continue to make editions of his household furniture and equipment underneath licence referring to historic archives and running below the supervision of Piero’s son, Barnaba, the Artistic Director of Atelier Fornasetti.
Whether or not it’s an outstanding picket chest with 8 levels of paint, or an beautiful porcelain jar, all these handmade and hand-painted solutions are the final result of mindful and painstaking production procedures. Every single piece of furnishings is signed, while exceptional pieces are numbered and dated as properly. With such an value place on authenticity and craftsmanship, it’s no wonder that these legendary and impressive examples of fashionable Italian style and design are coveted by significant artwork collectors all over the globe.
When a single ponders the array of ornamental products to which Fornasetti applied his unmistakable type, it’s nothing shorter of astonishing. From hats and coats, to pianos and wallpaper, the iterations are infinite. In Thailand, Seasons on Ekkamai Soi 20 is the exclusive seller of Fornasetti parts, offering their discerning clientele a diligently curated array of limited-version plates, candles, tableware and decorative accessories to adorn the property.
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