Piero Fornasetti

Piero Fornasetti was an Italian artist and designer reputed for his eccentric functional objects. He was known to combine many styles, periods and contrasting themes to create immersive spaces. His collaborations with Gio Ponti in the 1940s gained him a reputation for his striking graphic works, which found their way into his visual vernacular throughout his lifetime.

During Fornasetti’s initial training as an engraver and printer in Milan, he studied the forms of his architectural environment. Most notably, Fornasetti’s “Architecttura” series considers architecture as utilitarian technical achievement, and he reimagines the application of those mathematical designs. This staging is a theme that finds its way into his concepts for tableware as well. His consideration of tableware looks at the structural guidelines of table manners and asks us to consider the role of theatrics. The pageantry that is normally associated with structured methods of consumption is the scaffolding for his exploration of form.

Fornasetti challenges his audience to rethink the role of functional objects and interiors with theatricality and subversive humor. Today, Atelier Fornasetti continues to build off of Piero Fornasetti’s vision and flair for the unconventional.