Fornasetti

The world of Fornasetti is a universe in and of itself, which the flagship store in Milan, on Corso Venezia, clearly demonstrates. 

Walking into the store, spread out over three floors, is to suddenly be in a stylized version of Alice in Wonderland, where nothing is what it seems. 

Plates have eyes and pillows look like fish. Monkeys play in the wallpaper and chairs are in the shape of like ancient pillars. The surreal patterns are only matched by the high quality in production and finish. 

Painstakingly painted by hand, the scope of the production is limited to what the atelier can create without compromising the finished product. 

Piero Fornasetti grew up in Milan, and knew already from an early age that he viewed life differently than most people. 

He opened his atelier, where he conducted technical experiments and printed art books, including works by artists such as De Chirico, Campigli, Savinio, Clerici and Fontana. 

In 1939, Gio Ponti asked him to create a cover for the first cover of Domus (of which Ponti was the director). 

Throughout the 1940s, the creative collaboration between the two continued. 

Fornasetti was also commissioned to create decorations on public buildings, such as the frescoes of the Rectorate of Palazzo Bo in Padua, and the officers’ mess hall in Milan’s Piazza Sant’Ambrogio. 

Because of the war, Fornasetti had to escape Italy and seek refuge in Switzerland. Here, he worked as a designer for a textile company as well as a set designer and costume designer. 

Traces of this period can be seen in the Fornasetti self-portraits and series of harlequins. 

The most famous of the Fornasetti/Ponti-collaborations were the interiors of the Andrea Doria ocean liner, in which Fornasetti furnished and decorated a first-class cabin. 

Only a few years later, the ship, travelling quickly through heavy fog, collided with MS Stockholm and sunk, resulting in 46 causalities. 

The collaboration is notable not only for its creativity but because it was a “total artwork”; instead of simply adding a detail or a few pieces of furniture, the duo created the full experience of the room, from big ideas to small details. 

Lina Cavalieri was an Italian soprano and during her lifetime considered the world’s most beautiful women.  

Fascinated by her symmetrical face, Fornasetti created the Tema e Variazioni-series, in which he reproduced and reinterprets her portrait, over and over. In this way, the face of Cavalieri and the world of Fornasetti become intertwined with one another. 

Today, many have difficulty separating the two, and the memory of her lives on through Fornasetti’s many interpretations. 

His most fascinating contribution came towards the end of his working life: the “Metaphysical Room” consisted of thirty-two panels, each three metres high, to be arranged in various ways but with the aim to create a space for meditation. 

Today, Piero Fornasetti’s son Barnaba carries on the legacy, continuously maintaining but also carefully developing the world that his father created through his imagination and unique worldview. 

Fornasetti

Milan, Italy