Product Description

Piero Fornasetti used illusions, architectural perspectives and a host of personal leitmotifs, such as the sun, playing cards, fish and flowers to create a style that was his own. This book documents Fornasetti's life and art, and Ettore Sottsass provides a personal tribute.

Product Details

• Published on: 1991-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 285 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Combining whimsy and rigorous elegance, Milanese designer Piero Fornasetti (1913-1980) borrowed freely from surrealist and metaphysical artists. His is an art of gestures: a lone parrot on a balustrade evokes the Venetian Renaissance, helium balloons and propellor-driven airplanes conjure up a world of humanized technology. With subversive wit, Fornasetti imaginatively transformed lamps, coffeepots, chairs and plates into agents of humor, provocation and meaning. He produced an endless stream of variations on his personal leitmotifs, including the human hand, the female face, luminescent fish, bizarre creatures of the deep and playing cards. Mauries, contributing editor to Italian art and design magazine FMR , takes the full measure of a metaphysician who went from idealized architectural fantasies to bawdy erotic drawings to obsessive solar symbolism. Publication coincides with an exhibit at London's Victoria and Albert Museum.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This hefty volume is essentially a pricey catalog published to coincide with an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Combining Surrealist influences with a love for old engravings, prolific designer Piero Fornasetti (1913-88) created an array of whimsical creations and visions. Applying these to items of daily use, his workshops issued decorated cups, ties, scarves, fans, and screens along with dazzling pieces of trompe l'oeil furniture, all now sought by collectors. In addition, Fornasetti created countless drawings, book designs, and portraits and designed the decor for the luxury liner Andrea Doria . After peaking in the Fifties and Sixties, Fornasetti's reputation experienced a decline, until he was "rediscovered" in 1980 during the first revival of "Fifties Style." This lush homage to a fascinating artist includes over 600 illustrations, 116 in color. Most appropriate for strong art and design collections.
-Joseph Hewgley, Nashville P.L.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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