I VASSOI DI FORNASETTI
Ettore Sottsass, Franco Arquati, Christopher Wilk, Barnaba Fornasetti and Patrick Mauries [texts]
Ettore Sottsass, Franco Arquati, Christopher Wilk, Barnaba Fornasetti and Patrick Mauries [texts]: I VASSOI DI FORNASETTI. Milan: Salone Internazionale del Complemento d'Arredo, 1993. First edition. Text in Italian and an English translation on an insert. A very good or better brochure with minor shelf wear. Unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print.
8.25 x 11.75 four-panel double-sided Brochure [unfolds to approx. 33 x 11.75] with 12 illustrations, 5 in color. Also includes an English translation on a 8.25 x 11.75 double-sided single-fold brochure. Published in conjunction with an exhibit of the same name: Salone Internazionale del Complemento d'Arredo, Quartiere Fiera di Milano [April 20-25, 1993].
I believe that one day, when he was young, Fornasetti must have had a truly startling vision. I don't know if it was during the day or by night, but suddenly he must have seen the whole world explode into the air, the whole world and all of history and all the accumulation of its figures, memories and all the stones, the bodies, the trees, the houses and the monuments. Everything flew into the air and finished up in an infinite, opaque cloud full of rubbish that rose like a nuclear mushroom and then, slowly, in chilling silince, began to descent, falling heavily - perhaps on Fornasetti's head, or perhaps on his table or on his paintbrush or perhaps even simply on the floor of his room. it must have been a bit like in an Michelangelo Antonioni film … — Ettore Sottsass
Piero Fornasetti is widely recognized as a visionary designer, artist, illustrator, printer, graphic designer, craftsman, manufacturer and businessman. He established an enduring reputation as a designer with a style that was all his own, a style based on illusionism, architectural perspectives and a host of personal leitmotifs, such as the sun, playing cards and fishes, from which he spun seemingly endless variations. 'He makes objects speak' said Gio Ponti, his friend and longtime collaborator.