Fornasetti Designer of Dreams by Patrick Mauriès, 1991 1st Edition Art Book, Essay by Ettore Sottsass

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From the inside dust jacket:
Piero Fornasetti lived and worked in Milan from 1935, when he was only twenty-two, until … Read more From the inside dust jacket:
Piero Fornasetti lived and worked in Milan from 1935, when he was only twenty-two, until his death in 1988. During this long career he established an enduring reputation as a designer with a style that was all his own--a style based on illusionism, 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 -- "fashion items," as he put it, "which never go out of fashion." Hats, waistcoats, pipes, ashtrays, chairs, plates, cabinets, pianos, shops, racing cars, ocean liners -- all were transformed by the application of unexpected images. A corinthian capital is literally pressed into service as a chair back; a La Scala program cover decorates a scarf; a girl's face, split down the middle, adorns a plate. "He makes objects speak," said Gio Ponti, his friend and longtime collaborator.
Fornasetti worked in almost every medium. The book presents his work under six headings: drawings, graphics, architecture, tromp l'oeil, themes and variations, and nature. Patrick Mauriès, the leading art critic, details Fornasetti's life and art. Ettore Sottsass, founder of the celebrated Memphis design group, gives a personal assessment of Fornasetti as a man who built one world from the shattered remnants of another. Magnificent illustrations display his creations. Finally, an interview given by Fornasetti in 1987 unveils the man himself.
The Post-Modernist reappraisal of design has left Fornasetti's œvre more contemporary and popular than ever. Designers and collectors today celebrate his use of allusion, unsettling images, and striking juxtaposition to create unique, whimsical objects. Fornasetti's masterpieces shock, delight, and inspire.
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Book contains over 600 illustrations (116 in color!) and remains in exceptional condition.

Measurements
12" tall
9" wide
1 1/4" deep See less