Fornasetti Small-Scale Archtecture
October 20, 2017 6:24 PM   Subscribe

He's been called a surrealist but he seems more of a classicist with a touch of surrealism. Back in the 1950s Fornasetti, along with Gio Ponti, started making limited editions of architecturally interesting furniture. Most of them are in museums now but here's one went that went to auction, having once been owned by Henry Bernard, the French architect and Fornasetti's friend: Sinai & Sons Auction (be sure to click on "Read More")

Fornasetti's son has carried on his father's artistic works, especially the face of his favorite model which he modeled obsessively. Catalogue. The website itself is a lot of fun, sometimes frustrating in its artistic approach, but rewarding just the same.
posted by MovableBookLady (8 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
Could a kind mod zap the #comments anchor in the first link?
posted by zamboni at 7:12 PM on October 20, 2017


Mod note: zapped!
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 7:15 PM on October 20, 2017


Think I'm going to have to expand my rabbit hutch to make this fit!
posted by oheso at 7:37 PM on October 20, 2017


dammit a typo in the title
posted by MovableBookLady at 9:12 PM on October 20, 2017


Nope. It was a touch of surrealism, MBL.

Lovely bit of kit that. Cheers for the share!
posted by Samizdata at 9:18 PM on October 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


Thanks MovableBookLady! I saw a cabinet the other day in the ridiculously under appreciated Boymans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam and was completely blown away. The pictures are all we have here, but the real thing is truly marvellous.
posted by ouke at 11:40 PM on October 20, 2017


Fornasetti is singular in how it straddles/ignores the low-brow/high-brow divide. (Something that’s maybe a lesson learnt from Ponti, when Italian design first developed its whimsy.)

As it’s so unique and period-specific, I was puzzled, at first, to see how pervasive and diffuse it still is here in Italy - until I learned it’s still a family business. Actually a rare example of a design language passing intact through a generation (even two, I believe the grandson’s involved now, too).
posted by progosk at 12:00 AM on October 21, 2017


It's like Dr. Lecter's memory palace come to life.
posted by lagomorphius at 6:56 AM on October 21, 2017


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