Tropicana Magazine Sep-Oct 2018 #120: Art As Life

THE HOME
Where minimalism requires
discipline and a love affair with
hidden storage, maximalism
requires the art of balance.
Extravagant wallpaper, clashing colours and
countless objets d’art from different periods
can’t be thrown together and be expected to
find their own space, except with the help of
a sharp eye and skilled hand to direct them.
Enter Piero Fornasetti. An early 20th
century painter, sculptor, interior decorator
and printer, this Italian Renaissance man
was by all accounts ahead of his time.
Most reknown for his ‘Tema e
Variazioni’ or ‘Themes and Variations’, he
famously created thousands of objects using
almost 500 alliterations based on a single
portrait of a woman. He was captivated by
the classical beauty of 19th century operatic
soprano Lina Cavalieri, her visage became a
repeating symbol in his work, despite them
having never met.
Decorating everything from porcelain
plates to silk scarves, he described the
application of his pop art muse as “…
something more than decoration, it was an
invitation to the imagination, to think, to
escape from those things around us that
are too mechanised and inhuman. They
were tickets to travel through the realm of
imagination.”
Nevertheless, the beautiful mien of
Cavalieri should not outshine Fornasetti’s
creative genius or his far-reaching influence.
Born in Milan in 1913 to a bourgeois family,
the young Fornasetti defied both his father’s
plans for him and his rigid art school
education to become one of the most original
creative talents of his era.
Heavily influenced by Greek and
Roman architectural forms, much of his
work included illustrations in black and
white and featured leitmotifs such as
Corinthian columns and fantastical trompe
l’oeil. Always suffused with surrealist
wit and a sense of the absurd, his nonconformist
designs are widely sought after
by collectors and remain lauded by postmodern
designers.
He paired up with architect and
industrial designer Gio Ponti in the 50s; the
combination of Ponti’s eye for construction
and Fornasetti’s eccentric flair for the
decorative saw the duo rewriting the rules
of visual arts. Together they designed
magazine covers and collaborated on
numerous projects including the interiors
of Italy’s Palazzo Del Bo, Casa Lucano,
Casino Sanremo and the transatlantic
liner, the Andrea Doria. Tragically, the
luxury cruise ship sank off the coast of
Massachusetts a mere three years after it
was launched.
As is the case with design and the ficklemindedness
of fashion, interest in his
work has waxed and waned with prevailing
attitudes. Rediscovered in the late 80s and
90s era of excess, the resurging interest in
maximalism is likely to put his work and
that of the House of Fornasetti front and
centre. Seen as a response to the culture
of austerity, Fast Company went so far
as to declare: “Minimalism is dead. Hello,
Maximalism” as early as 2017.
While Piero Fornasetti’s original
works can be purchased at auctions and
auction sites, his son Barnaba drives
Piero’s legacy through the company that
bears his family name. Under Barnaba’s
artistic direction, Fornasetti, working out
of its atelier in Milan, is able to draw from
Piero’s considerable design archive to revive
popular pieces and, with a team of artisans,
create new pieces, some of which have
been collaborations with designers such as
Philippe Starck and brands such as Comme
des Garçons, Valentino, Kartel, Cole & Son
and Ceramica Bardelli.
TM | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2018
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