Piero Fornasetti

Piero Fornasetti was one of the most creative and versatile artists of the 20th century. His fortune was due to his eclectic and playful style, which led him to merge several trends of the artistic culture of his time – surrealism, classicism, rationalism and metaphysics – in unconventional ways. Fornasetti was born in Milan in 1913 in a well-to-do family. Because of his artistic inclination, he started attending the Brera Academy, from which he was expelled for being undisciplined. Later he would attend applied art and painting classes at the Sforza Castle, under the guidance of G. Usellini, whose painting style was ironic and anti-rhetorical.

The artistic production of Fornasetti changed after he met Gio Ponti, who suggested him to create objects for daily use embellished with artistic decorations. In the 1940s he founded his own atelier of design and decorative arts: he chose not to produce unique pieces, but to enable everybody to enjoy art and beauty. Fornasetti is well-known for his serial versions of the same theme: starting from a common initial idea, he used to represent it in dozens of different ways. “Tema e variazioni” [Theme and variants] is the most iconic among his series: after studying the face of Lina Cavalieri – an opera singer whose beauty was astonishing and enigmatic – the artist reproduced it 500 times, mostly on porcelain dishes. The change of the cultural climate during the 1970s meant a difficult period for Fornasetti, who would open an art gallery in London, where his works of art were rediscovered.

Among Fornasetti's series are worth-mentioning: "The beauties of Piedmont", "Sicilian specialties", and "Sardinian specialties".

Items created by: Piero Fornasetti