Fornasetti Ashtray
6.5" wide x 4.75" long

Piero Fornasetti
(Source: Wiki) Piero Fornasetti (18 November 1913, in Milan - 15 October 1988) was an Italian versatile and eclectic artist, characterized by an unstoppable creative flair that made him one of the most prolific figures of the 20th century, and difficult to ascribe to a specific movement.

Although Piero Fornasettis works are produced as individual pieces, he was an important figure in Italian industrial design culture, to such an extent that his name is now better known on the international design scene than in any other fields. Fornasetti was, however, an artist actively involved in a variety of aesthetic disciplines, including painting, drawing, graphic design and product design: It's rare to see such happiness in the act of making and producing, such a sweeping vision, free of any shadow of conflict in the moment of creation: a serene epiphany, an outpouring of inventions. In the course of his artistic career he created over 13,000 works and he was responsible for one of the largest outputs of objects and furniture of the 20th century, thanks less to the number of copies of individual pieces than to the diversity of his decorations. The sources of inspiration for his art (he began as a painter) were Piero della Francesca, Giotto, paintings from Pompeii, Renaissance frescoes and metaphysical painting, from which he never stopped drawing inspiration, making virtuosity the distinctive feature of his own art.

In the Fifties, Piero Fornasetti founded the design and decorative arts atelier in Milan that bears his name, Fornasetti, which today, under the artistic direction of his son Barnaba Fornasetti, is known throughout the world. One decisive factor in starting this activity was meeting Gio Ponti, who pushed him to develop his intuition: to produce everyday objects enriched by the kind of decoration that would bring art into ordinary people's homes. Thus the Fornasetti atelier was born. Today internationally renowned for the production of finely crafted furniture and accessories, it is a supreme example of the principle of "practical madness", where creativity is in perfect harmony with and inextricably linked to the utility of the object and the technical process through which it is made tangible. Precious porcelains, sophisticated pieces of furniture and furnishing accessories form the heart of the incredible variety of its output, which spans art and design: conversation pieces, visions to contemplate, but at the same time objects to be used.

It has always been my notion not to make one-off pieces, but series of items: a true statement of principle. Fornasetti justifies it, depending on the circumstances, by referring to democratic principles, since beauty, by its very nature, is intended for all and must not be reserved for a limited circle of initiates, or by referring to the technical side of his work, since the printing of a motif, the common denominator of all his creations, cannot help but be enriched, refined and varied in intensity through multiple, random mutations, as the work proceeds. Out of all Fornasettis ideas, one has imposed itself particularly powerfully due to the insistence of the infinite "variations" to which it has been subjected, so much so that it has become his true brand. This is the woman's face that is the subject of the series Tema e Variazioni ("Theme and Variations"), of which over four hundred versions exist today, with potentially more to come.

As an artist who was ahead of his time, establishing himself as a significant figure in contemporary culture, Piero Fornasetti has the merit of having contributed, with his work, to renewing taste and creating a unique and immediately recognizable visual language. Postmodern before the term existed, "the magician of precious and precise magic", according to Pablo Neruda's celebrated definition, Piero Fornasetti moved from canvas to page to furnished space, confusing perspectives, transfiguring space, reinventing time and giving life to a form of decoration that could be printed or deployed on any surface, from walls to display structures, from furniture to everyday objects, from books to posters to theatre sets. All my work is based on drawing;" stated Piero himself, drawing understood as a discipline, a way of living and organizing ones own existence. The artist must put things in order to create another world, a second nature, and as a way of continuously studying things and their essence...: this is the model of Fornasetti who, as Bruno Munari liked to say," can only be measured by the yardstick of Fornasetti.

Good condition overall; some light surface wear