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Historical Artist - Giorgio De Chirico (1888 - 1978)
Giorgio de Chirico, also known as Népo, was born in Volos Greece to a
Genovese mother and a Sicilian father. After studying art in Athens and Florence, Giorgio de
Chirico moved to Germany in 1906 and entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he read
the writings of the philosophers Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer, and studied the works of
Arnold Böcklin and Max Klinger.
Giorgio de Chirico returned to Italy in the summer of 1909 and spent six months in Milan. In
1910, Chirico began to favor lonely, deserted cityscapes with a dream-like feeling, paintings
which lead to the formation of Surrealism. In July 1911 he spent a few days in Turin on his way
to Paris. De Chirico was profoundly moved by what he called the 'metaphysical aspect' of Turin:
the architecture of its archways and piazzas. It was the city of Nietzsche. Giorgio de Chirico
moved to Paris in July 1911, where he joined his brother Andrea. Through his brother he met
Pierre Laprade a member of the jury at the Salon d’Automne, where he exhibitted three of
his works Enigma of the Oracle, Enigma of an Afternoon and
Self-Portrait.
During 1913 Giorgio de Chirico exhibited his work at the Salon des Indépendants and
Salon d’Automne, his work was noticed by Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire, he also
sold his first painting, The Red Tower. In 1914 through Guillaume Apollinaire, he met
the art dealer Paul Guillame, with whom he signed a contract for his artistic output.
During the World War I period, Giorgio de Chirico reverted to his metaphysical paintings, and
in the 1920’s he stepped into the realm of abstraction. He met and married his first wife
Raissa Gurievich in 1924, and together they moved to Paris. In 1928 he held his first exhibition
in New York and shortly afterwards, London. In 1930 De Chirico met his second wife, Isabella
Pakszwer Far. Together they moved to Italy in 1932, finally settling in Rome in 1944.
At the end of his career, he changed his focus to a more traditional and naturalist style. His
later paintings never received the same critical praise as did those from his metaphysical
period.
Quotes by Giorgio de Chirico on art
" 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 regions of
childhood vision and dreams. "
" Profound statements must be drawn by the artist from the most secret recesses of his
being; there no murmuring torrent, no bird song, no rustle of leaves can distract him. "
" What I hear is valueless; only what I see is living, and when I close my eyes my vision
is even more powerful. "
" Everything has two aspects; the current aspect, which we see nearly always and which
ordinary men see, and the ghostly and metaphysical aspect, which only rare individuals may see
in moments of clairvoyance and metaphysical abstraction. "
" A work of art must narrate something that does not appear within its outline. The
objects and figures represented in it must likewise poetically tell you of something that is far
away from them and also of what their shapes materially hide from us. "
" A landscape enclosed in the arch of a portico or in the square of a rectangle of a
window acquires a greater metaphysical value, because it is solidified and isolated from the
surrounding space. Architecture completes nature. It marks and advance of human intellect in the
field of metaphysical discoveries. "
Contemporary Italian Artists
Art Galleries in Italy
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