More than thousand pieces by Piero Fornasetti on show at  the Musée des arts Décoratifs, in Paris. From March 11 to June 15 2015 the main Nave of the Parisian museum features the exhibition “Piero Fornasetti: the practical madness”, the first retrospective ever devoted to Fornasetti in France. In the the­atri­cal dec­o­ra­tive uni­verse of For­nasetti, the sub­jects imbued with poetry and imag­i­na­tion play with opti­cal illu­sions, meta­phys­i­cal land­scapes, fig­ures drawn from the com­edy of craft and enig­matic and lunar faces depicted in mul­ti­ple vari­a­tions. 

This ret­ro­spec­tive exhi­bi­tion is a por­trait of this cre­ator who was a painter as well as a dec­o­ra­tor, a printer and a pub­lisher, a col­lec­tor and a merchant. Piero Fornasetti was all that and even more. Eclectic personality, Piero Fornasetti defines himself as a self-educated person. When he was young, 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. It was in 1933, then, when he took part in Milan’s Triennale with his scarves, that Gio Ponti discovered his talent. Their cooperation actually began in 1940, and continued for several years, during which they worked on the craziest projects

The exhibition presents the great themes of the designer’s work: his beginnings as a painter, his activity as a printer that underlie all his work, the Tema e Variazioni series and his cooperation with Gio Ponti. Sets of his trays, umbrella stands, and trumeau will be displayed in abundance. Certain decorations would be evoked with and always in perspective with the design and painting, centre-pieces of his universe. This exhibition, presented in 2013 at Triennale Design Museum in Milan, finds its place at the core of a critical and theoretical discussion on ornament as a structural element of design.

Piero Fornasetti: the practical madness

Musée des arts Décoratifs in Paris

March 11 – June 15 2015

Info: www.lesartdecoratifs.fr