The Great Fornasetti
An Eclectic Italian Designer
His most famous work is probably 'Themes and Variations', a series of plates with faces of the beautiful Italian singer, Lina Cavalieri. These strange and fascinating objects include her face interspersed with a sun and a clock face and surrounded by a hot-air balloon. They are sought after by collectors.
Fornasetti's Early Career
Born in 1913, Fornasetti was the eldest of four children. His mother was a German and his parents were both accountants.
He started drawing at the age of ten and studied at the Brera Art Academy for a while but he needed freedom in which to pursue his art so formal education in the field wasn't for him.
An educational grant provided him with the money to travel to Africa. His son remarked that the designer thought that he learned more from travel than formal learning.
Fornasetti's influences included Surrealiam, the Metaphysical artists and Neo-Romanticism. He liked to use motifs such as fishes, faces, suns and playing cards.
Fornasetti's Collaboration with Gio Ponti
In 1933 Fornasetti exhibited his art at the Milan Triennale. His beautiful silk scarves were noticed by the designer, Gio Ponti, and they began to collaborate, although the war separated them. Fornasetti spent the Second World War in exile in Switzerland.
Ponti designed the objects and Fornasetti decorated them. They created many interiors, such as that of the Casino at San Remo, in which Fornasetti playfully used playing cards as a motif. They also designed the first-class state rooms of the great Italian liner, the Andrea Dorea. Here Fornasetti used motifs of fishes.
Other unusual designs included the Adam and Eve plates which are a dozen plates which each show a different part of the human body and the Architettura line of furniture.
Often Ponti designed the furniture which Fornasetti decorated with unusual motifs, such as books on the backs of chairs, or musical instruments. He would also place pictures of buildings on chairs or two-dimensional cities on cabinets.
Other objects included whimsical umbrella stands, coffee pots, scarves and ties.
In 1959 Fornasetti was given the Neiman-Marcus award for 'distinguished service in the field of fashion.'
Fornasetti's Later Career
In the 1960's Fornasetti's objects began to go out of fashion, but he lived to see them become popular again before he died. He opened a shop in Milan and worked with his son, Barnabas.
He died at 74 of heart troubles in 1988. Barnabas continues his work. Fornasetti's many objects are very popular with collectors, although, surprisingly, he never regarded them as art, but as manufactured pieces.
Source:
Mauries, Patrick. Fornasetti: Designer of Dreams, Thames & Hudson, London, 1988.
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