Paris:
Musee des Arts Decoratifs - Piero Fornasetti : La Folie Pratique Exhibition. Presented in the main nave of Les Arts Decoratifs, the exhibition Piero Fornasetti: La Follie Pratique, until June 14, is
curated by Barnaba Fornasetti, Piero's son and Olivier Gabet, it is a collection of more
than one thousand pieces by Fornasetti (1913-1988) retrieved from his
incredible archives. The retrospective exhibition
is a portrait of the creator who was a painter as well as a decorator, a
printer and a publisher, a collector and a merchant. In the theatrical
decorative universe of Fornasetti, the subjects are imbued with poetry and
imagination they play with optical illusions, metaphysical landscapes, they are the figures drawn
from the comedy of craft, the enigmatic and lunar faces are depicted in multiple
variations. Piero Fornasetti paints scarves as well as furniture with his
motifs, but also walls and screens, plates, trays and umbrella stands. In
particular, together with the architect Gio Ponti, he imagined complete
interior design and decoration solutions for private homes, ocean liners, and
casinos.
Piero
Fornasetti: La Follie Pratique. The screen, with its function as a mobile architectural element, is intrinsically theatrical
and ideally suited for illusionist tricks.
This is one of Fornasetti’s chosen objects: from the early 1950s, he studied its history
and appearance in various cultural contexts and historical periods. He was fascinated by its linearity, an ideal
feature for decoration and trompe-l’oeil.
“How
could I tell my stories and make the objects on which I’m telling them useful
at the same time? … I have designed (screens) with endless motifs, but they are
mostly a way of enabling me to recount some of my dreams.”
Piero Fornasetti
Photograph
courtesy Fornasetti
Piero
Fornasetti: La Follie Pratique
Video - Piero Fornasetti: La Follie Pratique
– Les Arts Decoratifs - Paris
Barnaba
Fornasetti
Art historian and curator and director of the Musee des Arts Decoratifs Olivier Gabet
Karen
Park Goude and Jean-Paul Goude
Piero
Fornasetti: La Follie Pratique. A great reader and designer since his childhood, Piero
Fornasetti defines himself as a self-educated person, one who wanted no guide,
but his own. The
printing press that was available in his father’s workshop allowed him to
practice and experiment with all etching and printing techniques. He creates
the Stamperia d’Arte Piero Fornasetti and published his drawings, his almanacs,
but also the works of the greatest artists of his time: Carlo Carrà, Giorgio de
Chirico, Marino Marini, Lucio Fontana. His virtuosity allowed him to work on
all kinds of materials: paper, ceramic, glass, leather, textiles.
Above.
Two musical instrument Trumeau cabinets – silkscreen on wood, painted by
hand. Sketch of an acoustic speaker for record
player – 1950s – mixed technique on paper.
Chantal
Thomass
Lavinia
Birladeanu and Liborio Capizzi
Rosita
Missoni
Pierre
Frey
Piero Fornasetti: La
Follie Pratique. An extremely prolific
artist, Piero Fornasetti, in his fascination for the object as a
multiple and for «printed materials in all their forms» (Patrick
Mauries), also created posters, advertising products, logos and
fashion accessories which he generally conceived as serial objects.
The exhibition presents the great themes of the designer’s work:
his beginnings as a painter (not very well known) allow us to go back to
the Italian and European artistic context of the 30’s,
those of the Twentieth Century and the “Return to order” also, his
activity as a printer that underlie all
his work, the Tema e Variazioni series and his cooperation with Gio
Ponti, his sets of trays, umbrella stands, trumeau...
Above. The Tray Room. Tray “Serpe”
(snake) - mid 50’s - lithograph on metal – painted by hand.
Video - Fornasetti
100 years of practical madness – Toni Meneguzzo. Toni
Meneguzzo's dreamlike voyage through the Fornasetti universe is produced by
Yoox.com. "I embraced the spirit and faith typical of Fornasetti's world,
which is rich in alchemical thoughts and formulas," says Meneguzzo (above),
author of this "stop-motion" video, work of art. A "mantric
rosary full of patience," was required to shoot the spectators in the
kaleidoscopic home of Barnaba, Piero's intellectual heir.
Piero
Fornasetti: La Follie Pratique. The
museum is located inside the western wing of the Palais du Louvre behind the
chairs the main section of the Louvre Museum can bee seen.
Above.
Two Capitello chairs - mid 1950s – Moro – candle holder – 1960. Marbalia –
1960s – cubic base.
Piero
Fornasetti: La Follie Pratique: Villa Varenna.
A reconstruction of the living room of the family summer home in
Varenna, built by his father, where Fornasetti spent many childhood vacations
painting and drawing. Later the house was redecorated by the artist and filled
with his images and objects, exhibiting his taste for collecting and thematic
articulations.
Above.
The reconstruction of the living room, with various original pieces and
intentionally small variations in the same style.
Piero
Fornasetti: La Follie Pratique. Pompeiana
Screen - 1950’s - lithograph on wood – painted by hand. Trouser Suit designed by Barnaba Fornasetti
with Lawrence Steele – 1990s – cotton.
Rossella
Bisazza
Jose
Levy
CNBC’s
anchor Tania Bryer
photograph courtesy Fornasetti
Piero
Fornasetti: La Follie Pratique – Theme and Variations. The most famous work by Fornasseti remain the
plates with variations of the opera singer Lina Cavalieri’s round face, of
which no less than three hundred and fifty versions exist.
“Variations
is not only a musical endeavor or a musical exercise, but also an intellectual
tradition and virtuosity of the imagination.”
Gio Ponti
Variations
on a theme is a process that characterizes much of Fornasetti’s work. His
constantly variable recurring themes include suns and hands, but it is his
Theme and Variations series that is the true expression of this process.
Starting in 1952 he transformed Cavalieri’s face “as he wished” onto plates,
glasses, paperweights and candlesticks.
Like Henry Miller, who used one of these variations on the cover of one
of his books, Fornasetti loved to keep these, his favorite images, in the
bathroom, and hung 300 plates in the toilet of his gallery on the Via
Montenapoleone in Milan.
Piero
Fornasetti: La Follie Pratique. Sofa – Nigel Coates and Barnaba Fornasetti –
2014 – jacquard fabric, wood. Sardine
coffee table chest – reinvention Barnaba Fornasetti – 1999 – silkscreen, silver
leaf, wood, hand painted. Video - Piero Fornasetti: Tema e Variazione –
produced by Michela Moro - directed by Valeria Schiavoni.
Michela
Moro, Lorenzo Todeschini and Valeria Schiavoni
Karla
Otto and Barnaba Fornasetti
Natasha
Levy and Anne Marie Dubois Dumee Perse
Piero
Fornasetti: La Follie Pratique - Self-portraits – drawings from 1941-1945 –
Indian ink and pastel on paper.
Breakfast
with Elle Decoration at the Piero Fornasetti: La Follie Pratique exhibition. A
special breakfast viewing for the Piero Fornasetti: La Follie Pratique
exhibition was organized by Elle Decoration. Coffee and tea were served in the
Salon des Boiseries of the Musee des Arts Decoratifs before a guided tour.
French
Elle Decoration’s special feature, in the April issue, shows the apartment of
collectors Fabrizio Benintendi and Sonia Marinelli in Turin completely
decorated with Fornasetti objects, furniture and memorabilia, they are featured
above with the magazine’s editor in chief, Sylvie de Chiree.
Piero
Fornasetti: La Follie Pratique – Tea Set and Plate – Maschere Italiene – 1950 –
lithograph on porcelain, hand painting.