The Cult of Fornasetti: 5 Designers Choose Their Favorite Pieces - WSJ 16/03/15 10:28

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DESIGN The Cult of Fornasetti: 5 Designers Choose Their Favorite Pieces For the opening of a massive exhibition devoted to the work of Piero Fornasetti, the Italian artist known for emblazoning design objects with imagery, we asked fans like Kelly Wearstler to pick stand-out pieces

PRINTS-LY ABODE | The studio of Piero Fornasetti now holds the artist’s archives, including ‘Jerusalem By Day,’ along the wall, and a standing ‘Venus.’ PHOTO: GUY HERVAI

By SARAH MEDFORD March 13, 2015 1:20 p.m. ET

IT WAS THE FACE that launched a thousand home accessories. When, as the story goes, Milan-based artist and designer Piero Fornasetti (1913-1988) spotted the beestung lips and Mona Lisa-esque gaze of Belle Epoque opera singer Lina Cavalieri in an old magazine, he saw opportunity. Before long, he was recasting and tweaking her image, reimagining her as a vixen, a bandit and

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From the 1940s to the 1980s, Mr. Fornasetti spun out a prodigious collection of other illustrated pieces, applying crosshatched Piranesi engravings to lacquered secretaries, drawing fossils on tabletops and concocting trippy cityscapes from images of playing cards on paneled screens.

Furniture design in itself wasn’t a fixation, said his son, Barnaba Fornasetti, who took over the business after his father’s death, after working alongside him for years. Some of the forms were the work of others—most notably the Italian architect and designer Giò Ponti. “My father saw himself as a decorator of surfaces,” said the younger Mr. Fornasetti, who once gave a Fender Stratocaster the family’s patented print treatment for an Italian collector. “His vision is not classifiable to a style or period, so it’s not fashion but an influencer of fashion. Decoration is something like music. You need it for your soul.”

This week, “Piero Fornasetti: The Practical Madness” opens at the Louvre’s Les Arts Decoratifs, in Paris. The more than 1,000 pieces that the exhibition showcases, adorned with witty and sometimes transgressive prints, foreshadow today’s fad for wildly patterned surfaces. (See Isabel and Ruben Toledo’s new makeup compacts for MAC or Louis Vuitton’s spring dresses emblazoned with Fornasetti-style prints.)

More evidence of the artist’s currency: In January, the Italian brand Valentino collaborated on a six-piece collection with Fornasetti that included a scarf, a tray and a stool. Valentino designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli see an accord between the two brands, or “Italian patrimonies,” as they put it: “We’ve found the same culture of luxury linked to the idea of beauty and manufacturing perfection.” We asked a few other Fornasetti connoisseurs to talk about their favorite discoveries. Here’s what they picked.

Screen Gem “Piero was Pop before Pop,” said New York-based interior designer Frank de Biasi, describing Mr. Fornasetti’s appropriation of ready-made imagery. “I once found a four- panel screen depicting the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The severe graphic design, contrasted with the slick resin surface, transformed this copy of a Piranesi print into something fresh and modern for the entry hall of the Colonial Revival house where I placed it.” Fornasetti Pompeiana Screen (a piece in the same spirit), $15,725, Barneys New York, 212-826-8900

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FAN PICKS // What design insiders like Kelly Wearstler love about Fornasetti

From top left: Pompeiana Screen; ‘Re Sole’ Table; Amiamo il Serpente Rug; Malachite Wallpaper by Cole & Son; Fornasetti Theme & Variations Plates #77, #190 and #96 (left to right) PHOTO: F. MARTIN RAMIN/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, WALLPAPER, PLATES (3)

Side Show “His love of decoration and his surreal motifs are all things I relate to,” said London- based jewelry designer Solange Azagury-Partridge. “I have a round side table at home that’s a bit knocked around. But I don’t think he would mind, considering his irreverent take on things.” Fornasetti ‘Re Sole’ Table, $1,540, Barneys New York, 212-826-8900

Snakes on a Rug Fornasetti designs are “intelligent in the same way a New Yorker cartoon is,” said New York-based interior designer Richard Mishaan. “Elegant and provocative. You either love serpents or you don’t, but my Garden of Eden carpet is terribly engaging. When we bought it, our children liked to run down the hall, screaming. And in a long hall, it helps the eye travel.” Amiamo il Serpente Rug, approx. $16,232, Fornasetti, +39-02-8965-8040

Wall of Fame “I absolutely adore Fornasetti wallpaper,” said Ken Fulk, a San Francisco-based event designer who’s using it in a restaurant that opens in the fall. “I also happen to own the most glorious Fornasetti dining table ever.” Fornasetti Malachite Wallpaper by Cole & Son, $198 per roll, Lee Jofa, 888-533-5632

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“Repetition is a device I often revisit in my own collections,” said Los Angeles-based product designer and interiors maven Kelly Wearstler. “Mr. Fornasetti’s use of repetition—and his inventive, at times wild, color—have such a distinctive voice. His signature Theme & Variations plates are works of art. I’m in awe of artists who manage to take the everyday and elevate it to art.” Fornasetti Theme & Variations Plates #77, #190 and #96, $185 each, Barneys New York, 212-826-8900