Pierro Fornasetti Bocca Chair, Italy Milano, 2006
View Similar Items
Pierro Fornasetti Bocca Chair, Italy Milano, 2006
About the Item
- Creator:Fornasetti (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 37.41 in (95 cm)Width: 15.75 in (40 cm)Depth: 17.33 in (44 cm)Seat Height: 17.72 in (45 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:Hardwood,Lacquered
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:2006
- Condition:Minor fading.
- Seller Location:Munich, DE
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU980010350591
Fornasetti
The Italian artist, illustrator and furniture maker Piero Fornasetti was one of the wittiest and most imaginative design talents of the 20th century. He crafted an inimitable decorative style from a personal vocabulary of images that included birds, butterflies, hot-air balloons, architecture and — most frequently, and in some 500 variations — an enigmatic woman’s face based on that of the 19th-century opera singer Lina Cavalieri. Fornasetti used transfer prints of these images, rendered in the style of engravings, to decorate an endless variety of furnishings and housewares that ranged from chairs, tables and desks to dinner plates, lamps and umbrella stands. His work is archly clever, often surreal and always fun.
Fornasetti was born in Milan, the son of an accountant, and he lived his entire life in the city. He showed artistic talent as a child and enrolled at Milan’s Brera Academy of Fine Art in 1930, but was expelled after two years for consistently failing to follow his professors’ orders. A group of his hand-painted silk scarves, displayed in the 1933 Triennale di Milano, caught the eye of the architect and designer Gio Ponti, who, in the 1940s, became Fornasetti’s collaborator and patron. Beginning in the early 1950s, they created a striking a series of desks, bureaus and secretaries that pair Ponti’s signature angular forms with Fornasetti’s decorative motifs — lighthearted arrangements of flowers and birds on some pieces, austere architectural imagery on others. The two worked together on numerous commissions for interiors, though their greatest project has been lost: the first-class lounges and restaurants of the luxury ocean liner Andrea Doria, which sank in 1956.
Fornasetti furnishings occupy an unusual and compelling niche in the decorative arts: they are odd yet pack a serious punch. They act, essentially, as functional sculpture. A large Fornasetti piece such as a cabinet or a desk can change the character of an entire room; his smaller works have the aesthetic power of a vase of flowers, providing a bright and alluring decorative note. The chimerical, fish-nor-fowl nature of Fornasetti’s work may be its greatest strength. It stands on its own. Bringing the Fornasetti look into the future is Barnaba Fornasetti, who took the reins of the company after his father's death.
- Italian Vintage Design “Musicale” Chair by Pierro Fornasetti, 1950sBy Piero FornasettiLocated in Renens, CHA Musicale chair by Piero Fornasetti, produced by Atelier Fornasetti during the early 1990s. The Fornasetti company is specialized in hand...Category
Late 20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsMetal
- Fornasetti Chair "Musicale"By FornasettiLocated in Edogawa-ku Tokyo, JPA “Musicale” chair by Atelier Fornasetti. Lithographically printed. Hand colored wood, lacquer, metal tubular legs.Category
20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsMetal
- Fornasetti Chair "Musicale"By FornasettiLocated in Edogawa-ku Tokyo, JPA “Musicale” chair by Atelier Fornasetti. Lithographically printed. Hand colored wood, lacquer, metal tubular legs.Category
20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsMetal
- Piero Fornasetti “Mongolfiera” ChairBy FornasettiLocated in Edogawa-ku Tokyo, JP“Mongolfiera” chair by Piero Fornasetti.Category
20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsWood
- Fornasetti Chair Capitello CorinzioBy FornasettiLocated in Edogawa-ku Tokyo, JPThis chair has a lithographically applied graphic which is hand-finished and covered with a smooth lacquer.Category
20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsWood
- Piero Fornasetti 'Capitello Ionico' Chair in Black and White, Italy, circa 2006By Piero FornasettiLocated in London, GBA wonderful 'Capitello Ionico' or 'Ionic Capital' wooden chair designed by the great Piero Fornasetti. Originally designed in the 1980, this particular chair is numbered #24 from a v...Category
Early 2000s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsWood, Lacquer