Giorgio de Chirico 1888-1978 Presented by
Megan Louie & Tamara Delisle
G
irogio de Chirico was born in 1888 in Volos, Greece. In 1900, De Chirico began his studies of art at the Athens Polytechnic Institute and attended night classes called ‘Drawing from the nude’. About six years later in 1906, de Chirico moved to Munich, Germany where he attended the “Akademie der Bildenden Kunsite”. During his schooling, he became interested in the works of the artists Arnold Bocklin and the philosophy of Nietzsche, whose philosiphy was based on existentialism and his theory of the ‘death of god.’ Between the years 1911 and 1919 Giorgio de Chirico created some of his best-known artworks of his time
during his metaphysical movement. At the start of this period, his subjects were still cityscapes inspired by the bright daylight of Mediterranean cities, but gradually he turned his attention to studies of cluttered storerooms, sometimes inhabited by mannequinlike hybrid figures. He had since moved to Paris at the begining of 1911, and in 1912-1914 he had his artwork shown in the ‘Salon d’ Autumne’ and ‘Salon de Indepentants’. Soon after moving to Italy in 1915, de Chirico met Carlo Carra in 1917. Together, they founded the Metaphysical art movement. Even though this movement was short lived it had a huge impact on Italian artwork of the 20th century and was also a high
LIFE
point in de Chirico’s career. In 1919, de Chirico published an artical in ‘Valori Plastici’, where he wrote about returning to traditional methods and iconography. From 1920-1925 de Chirico moved around a lot from having multiple shows between Rome and Florence. His solo exhibition in 1921 was held in Milan at the ‘Galleria arts.’ In 1926, de Chirico broke away from a surrealist and tried his hand at being a Classicist. Though his artisitc ability was unmistakeable, many people were upset and started calling him an antisurrealist or anti-modernist.
‘The Disquieting Muses’ 1916 The painting was finished in 1916, during World War I, when De Chirico was in Ferrara. The city, considered by him the “perfect metaphysical city”, offered several hints to his inspiration, including the Castello Estense which appears in the background of the painting.
paintings attributed to him in public and private collections as forgeries. In 1955 de Chirico went back to painting metaphysical paintings— painting mostly ‘silent life’. Year’s later in 1978 Giorgio de Chirico died peacefully in Rome. Giorgio de Chirico not only influenced people but he also inspired many people as well and not just painters. He inspired poets, movie producers and many more. One person in particular that was inspired by his work was Valerio Zurlini’s. His film ‘The Desert of the Tartars’, uses many influential visual styles that are similar to that of De Chirico’s.
‘The Great Tower’
After moving to Paris Giorgio de Chirico’s artwork during that time between 1910-1918 was labeled Pittura Metafisica. All over his well-known pieces of artwork emerged at the time. A lot of the paintings had a dreamlike feel to them, which was also mixed with a sense of mystery. Some of the works that were created at this time were “The Great Tower”, “Mystery and Melancholy of a street”, “Love Songs” and “The Uncertainty of the
Poet”. Not long after 1918 de Chirico wanted to try his hand at classicist art. Even though the art he had produced during this time was still very well done, the art community still harshly criticized his artwork, and because of that he started to sign his paintings as Pictor Optimus. In 1930 de Chirico switched his art style again and went in a conventional expressionism direction, but in 1955 de Chirico want back to painting Pittura Metafisica.
Bibliography
ART LIFE
Olga’s Gallery: http://www.abcgallery.com/C/chirico/chirico.html Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/giorgio_de_chirico The Artchive: www.artchive.com/artchive/d/de_chiricobio.html Giorgio de Chirico: http://www.leninimpacts.com/giorgio_de_chirico.html
Again in 1930, de Chirico moved his art style to that of conventional expression. Although that didn’t last long as de Chirico’s art took another turn when he adapted neo-baroque into his artwork. With this change he got raving reviews from the art community, but never recieved the same amount of critical praise as his early days. This displease de Chirico who believed that his art had matured and had improved over the years. Also in 1930 de Chirico submitted 30 lithographs to Apollinaire’s Calligramme. He nevertheless produced backdated “self-forgeries” both to profit from his earlier success, and as an act of revenge—retribution for the critical preference for his early work. He also denounced many
The Archaeologists 1968
Wise words by Giorgio “To become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere. But once these barriers are broken, it will enter the realms of childhood visions and dreams.”
“Although the dream is a very strange phenomenon and an inexplicable mystery, far more inexplicable is the mystery and aspect our minds confer on certain objects and aspects of life.”
“Psychologically speaking, to discover something mysterious in objects is a symptom of cerebral abnormality related to certain kinds of insanity.”