POST IV

Giorgio de Chirico

He was an Italian painter who, with Carlo Carra and Giorgio Morandi, founded the style of Metaphysical painting. He was famous for creating interesting art that was very thought provoking as well as his eerie mood and strange artificiality of the cityscapes. He moved to Germany in 1906 after studying art in Athens and Florence. He drew inspiration from Arnold Bocklin’s and Maz Klingers paintings for his early style. In 1910 he moved back to Florence where he began painting a unique series of Landscapes that included The Enigma of an Autumn Afternoon.  This particular painting depicted long, illogical shadows cast by unseen objects onto vast empty city scapes.

When Chirico moved to Paris in 1911, he gained the admiration of Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire  with his scenes of deserted piazzas, such as The Soothsayer’s Recompense and The Mystery and Melancholy of a Street. 

In 1915 he was conscripted into the Italian Army and was stationed at Ferrara, Italy. He was able to continue making art and kept practicing modifications of his early style. During this time he was diagnosed with a nervous condition, he was admitted into a military hospital in 1917 where he met Carlo Carra. Carlo Carra and De Chirico developed the metaphysical painting style together. Works that depicted this style were the Grand Metaphysical Interior and The Seer, the colours are brighter, and dressmakers’ mannequins, compasses, and paintings on easels portray a mysterious significance within enigmatic landscapes or interiors.

Personally I really enjoy his style of art and how his paintings/style evolved as time went on. I like how the works got more colorful, and he started to form a distinct look!

Bibliography

https://www.wikiart.org/en/giorgio-de-chirico

https://www.moma.org/artists/1106

https://www.artsy.net/artist/giorgio-de-chirico