Fornasetti, Designer of Dreams [Hardcover]

Patrick Mauries (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1991

“Glorious . . . almost as good as owning one of the things themselves.”—The World of Interiors

Piero Fornasetti lived and worked in Milan from 1935 until his death in 1988. During this long career he established an enduring reputation as a designer with a style that was distinctly his own—a style based on illusion, architectural perspectives, and a host of personal leitmotifs, such as the sun, playing cards, fish, and flowers, from which he spun seemingly endless variations.

Fornasetti applied his decorative vocabulary to an astonishing array of objects—hats, vests, pipes, ashtrays, chairs, plates, cabinets, pianos, ocean liners—and transformed them by the application of unexpected images.

Today his work seems more contemporary and is more popular than ever. Designers and collectors celebrate his use of allusion, unsettling images, and striking juxtaposition to create unique, whimsical objects. Fornasetti’s masterpieces continue to shock, delight, and inspire. 116 color and 484 black-and-white photographs and illustrations

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 285 pages
• Publisher: Bulfinch Pr (November 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821218727
• ISBN-13: 978-0821218723
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 8.9 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,248,779 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very impressive, June 18, 2000

By 

www.delalonde.com "www.chateauresidence.com" (Chateau-Bois-Briand, Nantes,Loire-Valley,France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fornasetti: Designer of Dreams (Piero Fornasetti) (Paperback)

When we discovered plates, chairs and other decorative gadgets from Fornasetti some years ago, we did not imagine, my wife and I, that a real artist lied behind all these creations. I was really impressed when I discovered in that book the beautiful face of the artist and when I learned that he would never create any more because he already passed away. Fornassetti art is mainly decorative. It pleased every body because it is an harmonius equilibrium between classical inspiration and to-day printing technologies. If you do not know where to buy furniture inspired by Fornasetti, buy this book and place it on a coffee table. Everybody will want to read it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stars Barely Apply Here, December 25, 2005

By 

Wayne A. (Belfast, Northern Ireland) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Fornasetti: Designer of Dreams (Piero Fornasetti) (Paperback)

It's rather sad that not only is this book out of print and absurdly hard-to-find, but that finding any generally available record of Fornasetti's work seems to be an impossible goal nowadays. Pretty much everything that is missing from the contemporary world--wit, whimsy, engaging complexity, craft, imagination, humanity, a sense of history (sorry, it's a long list of absentees!)--can be found in this man's remarkable graphic work. How to describe it? Well, think of old architectural prints, renderings of sea life, hot air balloons, astrological symbols, the sun with a warm countenance, the visual vocabulary of the Renaissance recombined and recyled and reused with a mildly surrealist but distinctly upbeat edge. The result is a style of design that wraps the present in the past, sometimes almost literally, always lovingly.

Hardly a review, I mean where will you get the book without spending $100 (although I feel it's worth it, the book is excellent and packed with examples of his work). Do a Fornasetti Google for images and revel in the stuff. A bit of that and you may be willing to spring for the book or pester a publisher.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stylish Whimsy, February 6, 2009

By 

Classicdude (River City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fornasetti, Designer of Dreams (Hardcover)

This is a review of the 1991 hard cover edition published to coincide with the exhibition FORNASETTI: DESIGNER OF DREAMS which was held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, October 2, 1991, to January 19, 1992. A Foreward by Christopher Wilk, curator of Furniture and Interior Design at the V & A is included, along with an essay by Ettore Sottsass, founder of the Memphis furniture group.

Although there are over 600 illustrations, both drawings and photographs, it is far from an all-inclusive record of Piero Fornasetti's work from 1935 (at age 22 in Milan) to his death in 1988. However, in addition to his well-known ceramics and laminated furnishings, there are images of his drawings, including his phallic series, fabrics, and complete interiors, such as those for the ocean liner Andrea Doria. Biographical information is also included.

Despite Fornasetti's liberal recycling of classic images of architectural elements, the sun, playing cards, etc., with endless variations on a theme, the graphics always remained fresh and inspirational. The whimsy and delight of these objects has remained as significant in today's world of chic decorative arts as it was when they were first introduced. Sadly for new collectors, prices have remained as high as the style factor. A good reference for now, but hopefully a full catalog will someday be published.