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Page 27: Barnaba Fornasetti in the “Librera” room, Casa Fornasetti. Behind Above, Fornasetti wall plate “Tema e variazioni n°1,” diameter 26 cm.
Barnaba is the desk “Riga e squadra,” which he designed. In the background is Courtesy Fornasetti Porcelain
the screen “Battaglia navale,” 1950s. Courtesy Fornasetti Below, The Zodiac Suite, one of the four luxury apartments on the transatlantic
liner Andrea Doria, deigned by Gio Ponti and decorated by Piero Fornasetti.
Walls, curtains, upholstery, and furniture depict astronomical themes.
Courtesy Fornasetti

My father was an artist, a “predator” of images that he obsessively gathered
from books and magazines, and he was also a very accomplished printer.

His preference was for ink drawing, with clean strokes, black on white, with
which he defined every form, even when he made use of color. That black

line was the force, the fundamental characteristic of his language.

On a clear December morning we met with Barnaba Fornasetti, zines, and he was also a very accomplished printer. His prefer-
at the legendary Latteria San Marco in Milan, one of his favorite ence was for ink drawing, with clean strokes, black on white, with
haunts. He arrived on a bicycle, flaunting one of his signature which he defined every form, even when he made use of color.
looks, something of a dandy, always very elegant. Barnaba is the That black line was the force, the fundamental characteristic
son of Piero Fornasetti, an artist with an unpredictable person- of his language. The fact that his designs still have the power to
ality and surprising abilities, a brilliant creator of an immedi- communicate today is something magical, and hard to explain.
ately recognizable and at the same time dreamy, surreal visual To analyze it from the standpoint of psychology, these images
language. An acknowledged master of the art of decoration in seem to have been fished out of the collective subconscious. They
Italian design history, during his long career Piero ventured into are mostly images linked to the past, but they have become icon-
worlds very distant from one another, from publishing to design, ic, narrating an archetypal essence of the sign and design, across
theater to fashion. The impassive gaze of Lina Cavallari in one all cultures.
of her 500 “variations” is the symbol of a very strong corporate
identity, which since the 1980s has been taken to international AI: In 2013, you curated an exhibition held at the Milan
success by Barnaba, an artist and farsighted entrepreneur in his Triennale, to illustrate Fornasetti’s “practical madness.” What
own right. was the reference there?
BF: At the start of his career my father had a print shop that
Alice Ida: More than a hundred years have passed since made art books by all the greatest artists of the twentieth century
the birth of your father Piero, and eighty since the start of his in Italy, from De Chirico to Fontana. He had a thorny personality.
artistic career. Nevertheless, his designs constitute a visual An artist himself, he had such intense relationships with his col-
imaginary (and archive) that is still very timely, and projected leagues that fierce arguments sometimes broke out in the work-
into the future. What is the force of his language on an ex- shop. Yet in spite of his surrealism, and his “madness,” he had
pressive and symbolic level, in your view? an extremely practical intelligence, and he conducted extensive,
Barnaba Fornasetti: My father was an artist, a “predator” passionate research on printing techniques. Gio Ponti recognized
of images that he obsessively gathered from books and maga- his skill thanks to some lithographs on silk he had made, and

28 Design Protagonist Protagonist Design 29