district, where at the time the city ended and the fields began. The first child in a wealthy bourgeois family, he found himself facing a seemingly predetermined future: his father, an entrepreneur, had decided that Piero would follow in his footsteps, taking on the family business. Contrary to family expectations, Piero displayed an innate artistic inclination. Of this period he would say: Together with his penchant for drawing, Fornasetti also soon revealed his tough, determined character, demonstrating his resolve to pursue his aspiration. In 1932 he enrolled at the Brera Academy but was expelled two years later for insubordination. He then moved on to the Higher School of Applied Arts in Industry at the Castello Sforzesco, also in Milan, where he completed his schooling. The Thirties: the art printworks In the early Thirties, Piero began a phase of studying engraving and printing techniques. This constant practice allowed him to work with various artists of the time, printing artist's books and lithographs for them. From Alberto Savinio to Fabrizio Clerici, by way of Giorgio de Chirico, Massimo Campigli, Lucio Fontana, Michele Cascella, Eugene Berman, Raffaele Carrieri and Carlo Bo: the Fornasetti Art Printshop became a benchmark for many artists of his generation. "He was the first to print De Chirico lithographs in Milan, some considerable time ago", wrote Raffaele Carrieri in Epoca in 1978. Through constant experimentation in the field of printing, Fornasetti was able to obtain unique graphic effects on silk scarves. In 1940 he proposed a series of them at the VII Triennale di Milano, which was rejected because it was off-topic. The proposal, however, earned him the attention of Gio Ponti, with whom years later he would enter into a very close creative partnership. The two of them were aligned not only on the definition and importance of decoration and the cultural heritage that it implies, but also on the whole notion of architecture, the relationship between man and his environment. The Forties: the War and working with Gio Ponti Thanks to the experience he had acquired and his passion for printing, from the 1940s onwards Piero created a series of limited edition graphic works. Calendars, gifts, advertising images, theatre programs, posters and magazine covers. Editorial concepts designed and produced on commission or for pleasure, expressing in various forms his conception of formal elegance and his vision of the world. In this period (along with Filiberto Sbardella, Aligi