Giorgio de Chirico

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Giorgio de Chirico, December 5, 1936, photographed by Carl van Vechten , from the Van Vechten Collection of the Library of Congress

Giorgio de Chirico (born July 10, 1888 in Volos , Greece , † November 20, 1978 in Rome ; other spellings: Giorgio Di Chirico or DeChirico ) was an Italian painter and graphic artist . He is considered the main representative of Pittura metafisica , the so-called metaphysical painting , which is regarded as one of the most important forerunners of Surrealism .

life and work

De Chirico's parents were Gemma Cervetto and Evaristo Di Chirico. Both were from Italy, but the father was employed as an engineer in Greece building railways. His brother Alberto Savinio was a composer. After completing an academic training as an engineer at the Athens Polytechnic, Giorgio de Chirico studied painting with Georgios Jakobides (painting at the Polytechnic was spun off into the new Athens School of Fine Arts ) and from 1906 to 1909 after the death of his father in 1905 of the Royal Academy of Arts in Munich . During his time in Munich he shared a room with his somewhat older student colleague from Athens Jorgos Busianis and was friends with the painter Fritz Gartz .

In the Munich collections he was particularly impressed by the romantic-mystical paintings by the symbolist Swiss painter Arnold Böcklin , who was to be regarded by surrealists such as Salvador Dalí and Max Ernst as one of their forerunners. He was also influenced by the dream images of the German painter, sculptor and graphic artist Max Klinger . Like almost all artists of the era, he read Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche , who gave him the template for his work with his descriptions of ghostly empty places in Turin , lined with arcades and statues.

De Chirico's dream-like cityscapes consist of towers, arcades and ideal architecture devoid of people, sometimes in central, sometimes in multi-perspective spatial structures. The only individually used figural shadows and "manichini" ( jointed dolls ) form counterparts to the strictly architectural design of this backdrop. De Chirico later thematized the dreamlike, unconscious element in his compositions by placing details such as clocks, trains (in which the memory of his father is reflected) and alienated limbs in a surreal relationship to one another.

In 1911 de Chirico settled in Paris . There he presented his pictures in an exhibition at the Salon d'Automne and at the Indépendants . In the French art metropolis, he met important artists of his time such as Pablo Picasso , André Derain , Constantin Brâncuși and the poet and critic Guillaume Apollinaire .

In 1915 he left Paris and moved to Ferrara, Italy . There he concentrated on the three motifs cities, "manichini" and interiors. From around 1915 to 1925 de Chirico mainly painted still lifes . The faceless drawing dolls and antique statue motifs are typical here. From 1918 to 1919 Giorgio Morandi was also close to the Pittura metafisica and tested its suitability for his goals in ten works. De Chirico describes in his autobiography how much he “together with Carlo Carrà , Ardengo Soffici and Giorgio Morandi continually endeavored to create a sense of the tradition which in Italy has been confused and spoiled by the official, pseudo-academic art and the foolish bungling of secessionist simpleton is to steer back on the right track. "

In 1916/17 de Chirico founded the “scuola metafisica” with his brother Alberto Savinio and the Italian futurist Carlo Carrà, and thus a movement that anticipated the style of the surrealists by around ten years and lasted until 1920. In their works, the artists combined real and imaginary elements that create no or only a vague reference to one another. The artistic imagination became part of the composition of the picture. The associative character of the works created dream-like scenarios in which a magical-metaphysical mood prevails. Together with Carlo Carrà, de Chirico also founded the magazine Pittura metafisica in 1920 .

In 1919 there was a change in style in his painting style. De Chirico began to paint more realistically, aligning himself with the academic style. So in 1926 the work with the title "Two Nudes" was created. In 1924 he was one of the founders of the magazine La Révolution surréaliste . In 1924 de Chirico moved back to Paris and was enthusiastically received by the Surrealists, whose paintings owed his a lot.

The year 1930 marked a turning point in his work: instead of continuing to orientate himself towards newer art movements, de Chirico turned completely away from the Pittura metafisica. Yet his metaphysical images remained influential to the surrealists. He turned to a markedly baroque and pathetic style of painting, criticized modern painting sharply and from then on painted in a classical, academic style. Since he did not earn enough with these pictures, he also copied and sold works from his metaphysical epoch, which is why dating "real" Chiricos is often not easy. From 1939 until his death, de Chirico lived again in Italy.

Some of his works were shown at documenta 1 (1955), documenta II (1959) and documenta III (1964) in Kassel .

His house in Rome on the Piazza di Spagna has been open as a museum since 1999 and shows an exhibition of the artist's work.

Giorgio de Chirico's tomb is in Rome in the Church of San Francesco a Ripa . There the first side chapel to the left of the entrance was extended into the neighboring property (= Ministry of Culture) by means of two door openings. De Chirico's tomb is in fact on the floor of the Ministry of Culture - however, access is only possible from the side of the church.

Honors

Works (selection)

literature

Primary literature

  • Giorgio de Chirico: Monsieur Dudron. Autobiographical novel. Gachnang & Springer, Bern 2000, ISBN 3-906127-59-1 .

Catalogs

  • Giorgio de Chirico (1970). Catalog # 5 of the Kestner Society for the exhibition July 10 - August 30, 1970.
  • (IT) Edoarto Brandani (a cura di), Giorgio di Genova , Patrizia Bonfiglioli (1999), Giorgio de Chirico, catalogo dell'opera grafica 1969-1977 , Edizioni Bora, Bologna 1990 (1999), pp. 247.
  • (IT) Maurizio Faggiolo dell'Arco (1999), L'opera completa di de Chirico 1908-1924 , Rizzoli, Milano 1984 (1999), pp. 121.
  • Last Bulder: From Manet to Kippenberger. Edited by Esther Schlicht and Max Hollein
  • Giorgio de Chirico, Magie der Moderne (2016), exhibition Staatsgalerie Stuttgart , March 18. - 3. July 2016. Ed. By Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Paolo Baldacci, Christiane Lange , Gerd Roos, 248 S. Sandstein Verlag, Dresden, ISBN 978-3954982110

Secondary literature

  • Andreas Dorschel (2009), 'Metaphysical painting: Philosophy and image with Giorgio de Chirico', in: Art and knowledge in modernity . Böhlau, Vienna - Cologne - Weimar, 2009, pp. 123–132.
  • (IT) Paolo Baldacci , Maurizio Fagiolo dell'Arco (1982), Giorgio de Chirico Parigi 1924-1930 , Galleria Philippe Daverio, Milano 1982, pp. 22nd
  • (IT) Maurizio Cavalesi , Gioia Mori (2007), De Chirico , Giunti Editore, Firenze 1988 (2007), pp. 50.
  • (IT) Fagiolo dell'Arco (1991), Giorgio de Chirico carte , Extra Moenia Arte Moderna, Todi 1991, pp. 64.
  • (IT) Fagiolo dell'Arco , Luigi Cavallo (1985), De Chirico. Disegni inediti (1929) , Edizioni grafiche Tega, Milano 1985, pp. 140
  • (IT) Pere Gimferrer (1988), De Chirico, 1888-1978, opere scelte , Rizzoli, Milano 1988, pp. 128.
  • Werner Helwig (1962), De Chirico: Metaphysical Period . Mohn, Gütersloh 1962.
  • (IT) Magdalena Holzhey (2006), De Chirico , Taschen, Köln (D) 2006, pp. 96.
  • (IT) Gioia Mori (2007), De Chirico metafisico , Giunti, Firenze 2007, pp. 50.
  • (IT) Elena Pontiggia , Giovanni Gazzaneo (2012), Giorgio de Chirico. L'Apocalisse e la luce , Silvana Editoriale, Cinisellobalsamo 2012, pp. 119.
  • Gerd Roos (1994), Girogio de Chirico and his painter friends Fritz Gartz - Georgios Busianis - Dimitros Pikinos in Munich 1906–1909. In: Schmied, Wieland, Ross, Gerd: Giorgio de Chirico Munich 1906–1909. Akademie der Künste, Munich 1994, pp. 55–182.
  • Wieland Schmied: Giorgio de Chirico: The unsettling muses. An art monograph . Insel-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 978-3458331841
  • Wieland Schmied: Giorgio de Chirico: Endless journey . Pegasus Library, Prestel Verlag, Munich-London-New York 2001, ISBN 3-7913-2598-1

Web links

Commons : Giorgio de Chirico  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Materials from and about Giorgio de Chirico in the documenta archive
  2. ↑ with note by Paolo Picozza on the German edition; 10 full-page b / w lithographs by de Ch. From 1934, with poems by Jean Cocteau, published under the joint title Bagni misteriosi (“Mythology”). Some short articles on de Ch., Among others by Georg Baselitz , Luciano Fabro and Johannes Gachnang
personal data
SURNAME De Chirico, Giorgio
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Di Chirico, Giorgio; Chirico, Giorgio DeChirico; Painting, metaphysical
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian painter and printmaker
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Volos , Greece
DATE OF DEATH November 20, 1978
Place of death Rome , Italy