Piero Fornasetti

It’s pretty much impossible to put Piero Fornasetti into any one category. Throughout the 20th century, he crossed art forms with his creative flair, in painting, graphic design, and product design. This jack-of-all-trades artist never limited himself with mediums or styles. Piero Fornasetti developed his own signature look with tongue-in-cheek humor that can be found everywhere from trays to bicycles, posters to lamps, or in large-scale projects like set designs. Instead of focusing on creating the form of his objects, he worked on embellishing and enriching their surfaces with witty and surreal hand-painted images. In 1940, Piero Fornasetti embarked on one of his most fruitful collaborations with fellow design legend Gio Ponti. Gio Ponti provided the base, expansive surfaces on perfectly proportioned furniture, and Piero Fornasetti provided the finish, painting each piece with neoclassical motifs. The result was an astonishing harmony between structural and decorative elements, exemplified in their Archittetura collection. Piero Fornasetti played around with trompe l’oeils, blurring the lines between dimensions. However, he never took himself too seriously, and often used lively patterns using things like suns, butterflies, fish, and hot air balloons. Put vintage Piero Fornasetti tableware on display to lighten up the atmosphere and have a major talking point when guests come over. We’re personally fans of his mischievous umbrella stands for their exciting optical illusions that never get old. Pick up some vintage Piero Fornasetti pieces from Chairish to add some whimsy your space today!