The first time I saw Piero Fornasetti’s decorative arts designs I stopped dead in my tracks. Here were these whimsical illustrated faces with big round eyes staring at me from a shop window. What was I to do but stare right back!





There is something absolutely irresistible about these faces. Fornasetti painted over 350 of them.





Piero Fornasetti was born in Milan in 1913 and was painting by age 10. A rebellious child he was thrown out of school. Piero then taught himself how to paint and draw from books. And he drew night and day.






He rejected the concept of art movements and felt labels like Renaissance, Neo-Classical, Surrealism were confusing and therefore did not exist. Only good drawings existed according to Fornasetti. “I don’t believe in periods or in dates. I don’t believe in them. I refuse to determine the value of an object by its date. I don’t limit myself, and nothing is too esoteric to be used as inspiration. I want to free my inspiration from the limitations of the usual.” Piero Fornasetti





The Piero Fornasetti web site is the source for this text and a work of art in itself.

xo MaryMaru